Season Brings you Children
by thriller
Summary: Story3: Its Christmas time the festive spirit is in the air and a lot of kids at that. A couple of new characters as guests and a lot happening and it’s the perfect story for Christmas so enjoy! MERRY CHRISTMAS! .x.thriller.x.
1. Unpacking

Hey! Guess what time it is?! Yeh; you got it, the 20th, right? But it's more than _just _that: time for another story from Thriller; the THIRD in the series, SEASON BRINGS YOU! And this time it's all about the kids. Enjoy!

_Summary:_ its Christmas time; the festive spirit is in the air and a lot of kids at that. A couple of new characters as guests and a lot happening and it's the perfect story for Christmas; enjoy! FIVE CHAPTERS; ONE FOR EVERY DAY LEADING UP TO CHRISTMAS AND ONE ON THE DAY ITSELF!

Key:

"…" Speech

'…' Thoughts

(…) Extra information

**Songs are in bold**

Written letters or notes are underlined

"_Telepathic thoughts and the other line of the phone is in Italics and speech marks_" 

Season Brings you Children 

Chapter 1

VvV Unpacking VvV

_**20**__**th**__** December, X-Mansion, Danger Room; morning**_

Baby Rachel giggled, great, bubbling gurgles as her mother pulled faces at her, keeping the child entertained whilst the father kept a watchful eye on the surroundings, no more alert than the average parent, although his hand often flickered to his sunglasses. Night filtered through the street the Square they stood in and, as eyes were cast upon them, both mother and father were fully aware of just how much they stood out.

Billowing around her face as the wind began to pick up, Jean Grey Summed absently brushed her phoenix red hair to the side, passing her husband a nervous glance. Neither said a thing, but it didn't take a genius to note the fear levels rising. At almost one years old, Rachel Ann Summers was nonetheless a genius-to-be and without a smile, she refused to catch her mother's eyes and even when Jean called to the young baby, Rachel simply turned away. Babies sense fear, and Rachel didn't like it.

"Would you like to stop?"

Calling out through the Danger Room was Ororo's voice and the woman watched from above the coupe, her eyes flickering to Logan's hand, which hovered above a large red button.

"No," Scott replied and looked at his wife whilst holding out both arms, "Jean, hon, pass her to me."

Reluctantly exchanging Rachel was the signal that the two had swapped roles and both Ororo and Logan noted as Jean took charge; she was in control and immediately made a decision, "I don't like the feel of this place. I say we move."

"But I think we should stay here, where we are; in the open."

"Open to everyone else!"

"We'll see them coming," but as a couple suddenly appeared directly behind Scott, shocking the man immensely, he looked to his wife with an apologetic look; "or maybe not…" and with that Jean simply gave him a knowing look. Interpretations of certain looks weren't hard to work out and Scott managed to work out the gaze correctly; "you saw them coming didn't you? Mentally? So that means you can see when others come!"

Sighing, Jean took her daughter back, shifting the baby on one hip to stop the wailing cried that had started with Rachel's parent's argument, "and I can sense that this isn't a good place to stay in. even if I saw someone coming I couldn't sense them in time-"

With that, suddenly a yell resounded behind them and within moments Scott was hurled forward, face first into the pavement. Turning around in time to see more men running at them, Jean covered Rachel in her arms, pulling the girl tight to her bosom to give protection as the nearest man raised his hand high; a bar of solid metal aimed at Jean's head.

Jean screamed whilst throwing out a hand pleading for the man to stop, closing both eyes, tears flowing freely onto Rachel who cowered silently in her mother's arms…

VvVvVvV

"Jamie, why are we watching this crap?"

"It isn't crap!"

"Amara it's total rubbish!"

"She's right; it isn't crap!"

"Pass us the popcorn Bobby. No DON'T! …Throw it…"

"Bobby Drake you got that all over me!"

"And me!"

"Roberto pushed me!"

"No I did not."

"Did too!"

"Hey! He just pushed me. Jubilee give me back my seat you-"

"Grow up."

"HOW! Old are you all?" yelling the first word immediately got the room's attention and Rogue scowled at the gathering of New Mutants, shaking her head when they recovered enough to continue causing chaos. Remy walked past the Rec Room after his wife and only stopped for a moment; the confusion of the room inside confusing him too much to be bothered with. Only Kitty and Kurt – curled up in a corner at the far end talking with heads down, quietly – looked out of place in the general disordered free-for-all that was called 'watching a movie.' Why the annual event had to happen Remy had no idea, but at that moment he was more interested in what Kitty and Kurt were discussing and why, catching Remy watching them, Kitty pulled away blushing, stepping away from the sofa.

Knowing his friend was standing beside him, Remy didn't bother turning to speak, "wonder what dat was about, eh?"

"Mmm…not loyke Kit-Kat to be secretive…"

"Quit calling her that John." Wanda appeared by her fiancé's side after saying this and scowled at him in warning.

"But the pre-"

Interrupting her boyfriend to prevent any secrets being spilled, Wanda quickly reflected on the two men's original discussion, "what was Kitty doing?"

"Nothin'," Remy prevented John from saying anything and with a look shared between them, Remy hurried after his wife – Rogue being the patient girl, had not waited for him – whilst John simply ignored Wanda's questions.

_**Further ahead**_

Sighing, Rogue paused momentarily allowing Remy to catch a little way up before getting immediately bored and she once again started walking, reducing Remy to running after her. Regretting her decision was due to the massive, enveloping hug she received from Remy as he picked the girl up from behind, twirling her around in a circle, making her squeal.

Suddenly the two silenced and stopped with their fun and games as two figures stormed out from a door nearby, one holding a wailing baby who seemed to grow more and more agitated at the rising tones of her parents.

As she was put back on the ground, Rogue watched whilst Jean spun on the spot to face her husband, almost dropping Rachel in the process. Noticing this, the woman got her daughter steady once again before spotting Rogue and her three companions watching, ignoring Scott's attempts at getting to Rachel and instead choosing to thrust the one year old into Wanda's outstretched arms.

"Shh…" comforted the mother of a younger baby, rocking Rachel in her arms whilst being accompanied by John in the direction of the nursery. "It's alright…" lied Wanda, her voice growing fainter as both Rogue and Remy stayed to prevent violence erupting between the feuding couple before them.

Jean started to scream louder in the absence of her baby whilst Scott attempted to calm her, instead making matters worse as he tried to block the sound of her voice. "LISTEN TO ME! YOU NEVER LISTEN! IF YOU'D LISTENED BACK THERE IT WOULD NEVER OF HAPPENED!"

"You wouldn't have got hurt; it was a simulation!"

"TO SIMULATE REAL LIFE!" Desperate to get her point across, Jean held up her arm and Remy moved forward an inch or so, thinking she was about to strike Scott but instead she showed him a nasty rip in her sleeve – obviously from a knife – luckily going no deeper than the material. "I _felt_ that bar as my telekinesis stopped it and the metal hit me when you blasted it."

"But I blasted it; I stopped you from getting hurt." Crying in anger was all the woman could do, unable to control her emotions, "Jean…"

But as a hand was reached out to her, the woman pulled away and cried out loud, "NO! You don't _get_ it; if you'd have listened…LISTENED! If you'd have just done as I asked I wouldn't have been at risk; you wouldn't have needed to stop anyone."

"Alright so I made one wrong choice," obviously those were the wrong words though and with one last outraged yell, Jean Summers turned from her husband to storm up the stairs and both Remy and Scott flinched at the slamming door. However Rogue simply looked to Scott in annoyance, used to the sound of a closing door – the amount of times she'd done it herself. With a sigh, the girl followed the footsteps of her fellow female and disappeared out of sight as Remy shrugged.

Unable to think of anything to fill the empty silence he removed a set of keys out of one of the hidden pockets in his trench coat, "wanna go early to get a drink?"

"I won't bother asking why you have my keys." And as he caught the keys, Scott followed Remy to the garage; the Cajun taking that as consent.

_**Meanwhile, a floor below in the Nursery**_

"'And then Andy Pandy got into his box with all his friends and they said 'goodnight,' and went to bed for a well earned sleep,' just like someone I know." Closing the cover of her book, Wanda chucked Rachel under the chin, blowing raspberries at the young child who giggled delightedly, managing a short, non-interpretable sentence tiredly; it had been an exhausting morning. "Nighty night."

Turning off the bedside light by Rachel's bed was to signal her naptime and the girl feel asleep almost instantly, allowing Wanda to join John at the crib of her own three month old baby. Difficult as his father – shown obviously by the fact that the baby was born two weeks after he was due – Reece refused to go to sleep and simply looked up at his parents gurgling away until, unable to resist, John picked him up.

Enthusiasm. Showing it with passion from when he was born – Wanda had cried when Reece wouldn't stop yelling – to communicating with the world – his attempts at words at only two months had everybody trying (and failing) to teach him words – it was the perfect meaning for the name of the baby. Sure, it had taken a month for Wanda and John to get to it, but Reece Allerdyce was the ideal name for an overly enthusiastic baby.

As they both gazed down at their child, both parents held hands and smiled at the giggling face; he was the ideal baby in himself: lively and always laughing. Not to mention a challenge at that.

VvVvVvV

_**Entrance foyer; 1:00pm**_

Stomping the snow off of his boots, the man gazed around at the familiar greeting of the foyer and raised a hand in greeting to several of the New Mutants as they all trudged in the direction of the stairs; their movie having finished. Completely used to the man appearing at random times, Bobby iced his way up the stairs and Amara continued to chase after Tabby; magma erupting from her hands at the blonde's back.

He would have said more but right now one hand was pulling off a boot whilst in the other he held his phone, talking animatedly to the voice of his wife on the other end.

"…_But anyway, I _also _called to tell you that we are now _**officially**_ moved in!_"

"Aren't we already? Morning guys," side stepping Kurt who was busily chatting away to Kitty again whilst Lance followed after, Pietro slapped his best friend fondly on the back, grabbed a slice of toast and then meandered out into the corridor again. "We moved in at least 8 months ago, if not more, babe." Shovelling the toast into his mouth, Pietro walked slowly through the hallway deciding the best place to look for the person he came for would be upstairs and so, ignoring the hidden lift he passed, headed in the direction of the foyer again – Quicksilver was never one for lifts.

On the other side of the line, Lexa threw an empty box out of the back door and closed it, switching the phone to her shoulder whilst picking up Tory. "Ah, but now it is official!"

"…_What's so official?"_

"I have just unpacked the last box! A job that – may I remind you, Pietro Maximoff – was _yours_ to do."

"Hi daddy!" came a voice through the phone as Tory plucked it from her mother's grasp.

Back in the Xmansion, Pietro nodded to Logan upon passing and began to ascend the stairs, "hey baby, you gonna pass me back to mummy?"

"_No. Mummy says keep ya smiling; she makes cakeys. But anyway,_" imitated the child from her mother's vocabulary,_ "guess which one I am!"_

Used to playing this game of guessing which child he was speaking to, and fully aware of which daughter he was speaking to at the moment, Pietro made a fake puzzled, thinking noise, standing to one side as he reached the stairs whilst Bobby hurtled down them. "Is it…hmmm…let me see…" squeals of giggled delight sounded from the other end and Pietro played the game for his daughter. "Well! I'm not sure," standing to one side of the corridor he was currently walking down was to avoid Sam as the boy 'cannonball'ed through it and Pietro played his part by standing there thoughtfully for a while.

"_Daddy!_" erupted Tory's voice through the phone as her impatience got the better of her; "_guess! Guess!"_

Alright…is it…Maddie?"

Laughter resounded loudly in Pietro's ear, hushed by Lexa who – by the sound of her tone of voice – was having trouble with her over sensitive powers, and wasn't happy about the level of noise. "_No daddy!_" whispered Tory; her voice sounding more breathless than hushed in her attempt of a whisper, "_she's only…um…"_

A long pause awaited, giving Pietro long enough to have a quick chat with Rogue who appeared with a distressed looking Jean from the older, fiery haired woman's room. Getting bored with waiting for an answer that would never come though, Pietro held up a hand momentarily to Rogue who stopped talking as Pietro filled in for his daughter. "She's four months old tomorrow Tory."

"_Daddy! You spoilt the game!_" giving her father no time to reply, the younger of the two twins, Iris and Tory, carried on talking getting excited, "_she havin' a party?!"_

"No Tory, honey; it's not her birthday yet, got another six months for that." And with that Pietro heard a loud clatter as no doubt Tory dropped the phone, only to have it picked up by the young girl's mother who was currently scolding the 16-month-old girl.

"_Well what's the point in havin' 'er then? I still say Iris shoulda sold Maddie…"_

A cry came through the phone after the sounds of his daughter's distant voice – Lexa had probably slapped her on the behind for that remark – and in seconds Lexa was saying goodbye; "_I gotta go sort that child out. I tell you Pietro; those twins are nothing but trouble…love you."_ With that Lexa hung up, leaving Pietro no chance to reply and so the man stuffed his phone in his pocket before turning to Rogue.

"Sorry about that; Tory's being mischievous."

Twin sparkles shining in her eyes, Rogue chortled, "ah heard," and it was obvious that Jean had also heard by the amused snuffles she was making, they soon stopped as Pietro questioned what was wrong although Rogue simply waved her hand nonchalantly in the air. "It's nothing, a li'l tiff, that's all. Now ah say we all go ahn get a cuppa and Jean, y'all can just fohrget this whole incident, Rachel will be wanting her mom in a minute anyways." With that the girl led Jean towards the stairs, stopped by Pietro who stood with a raised eyebrow at Rogue's forgetfulness.

"It slipped your mind didn't it?"

"What did?"

"Of course!" spoke Jean for the first time, clapping a forehand to her head, "Lorna's coming home! We were supposed to go to Lexa's to greet her and chat about her holidays whilst the boys take Piotr for a drink." Opening her mouth in surprise at her momentary shock, Rogue made to release Jean's arm, mentioning something that sounded like 'appearance' but was stopped in her tracks as Jean swung the girl around, "no time for make up! We're late. Why we weren't reminded before I don't know!"

Leaving Pietro alone went completely unnoticed and the boy simply waved after them both, finding the man he was looking for within moments, "John!" he called, trying to ignore who he was lip locked with – or more the sight of the John and Wanda together. "You coming to greet Piotr or what?" turning to his sister as John ran off – calling back to say he needed his wallet – Pietro gestured with a nod in the direction Rogue and Jean had set off in, "Rogue's gone with Jean and I passed Betsy on my way here. That girl should really wrap up warm."

Slowly making her way down the stairs, Wanda shrugged, linking her arm into her brother's, "Jean just send a message saying she was waiting," to explain what she meant the girl tapped her head before carrying on. "Betsy's just doing it to be spiteful; that girl isn't gonna give into this baby thing just yet no matter how much Warren tries to persuade her about having one. Besides, seeing the stress Kitty's going through just trying to take care of Ben is putting her off for life." At the bottom of the stairs the two parted as John ran after them, kissing Wanda quickly before pestering Pietro to hurry up. "Grow up Johnny, you're worse than Reece! It's a baby allowed thing isn't it?" and as Pietro nodded to her, Wanda disappeared in the direction of the nursery calling back for the boys to tell Jean that Wanda would get Rachel for the redhead.

_**The Garage**_

After comforting Jean whilst the woman panicked about forgetting her daughter, Pietro got into his own car and immediately slapped John's hand away from the dashboard as the boyish man grabbed it, practically jumping up and down in excitement. "Hurry _u-up_! I wanna see Piotr!"

"Alright; cool it Johnny. Jean says Remy and Scott went ages ago, and judging by the lack of his jeep Lance has gone with the other guys. Lets see how we deal with this snow in this baby then," and with that Pietro started the engine on his new car – an early Christmas present – and the two men got going.

**End of chapter**

So…looks like Piotr and Lorna went on holiday together and are back. We'll see where they went and what happened along the way next chappie…but the question you've really gotta ask is who could be home alone _again_? Will Professor Xavier, Logan and Ororo go out and what mischief will the New Mutants get up to this time? FIVE DAYS TO GO! Hope you liked chapter 1! .x.Thriller.x.


	2. Home

Heya! Glad you all liked last chapter (I hope lol) and – thanks to a special request (good idea; _**allyg1990**_) here's couples and kids:

**-Lexa/Pietro – Iris – 16 months **_and also_ **– Tory – 16 months **_and also_ **– Maddie – 3 months**

**-Kitty/Lance – Ben – 14 months** _and also_ – u**nnamed – pregnant with**

**-Jean/Scott – Rachel – 12 months **

**-Wanda/John – Reece – 3 months **

**-Lorna/Piotr – Illyana – pregnant with (**betcha didn't see _that_ one coming!

**-Amanda/Kurt – unnamed – pregnant with**

**-Rogue/Remy**

**-Betsy/Warren**

**-Tabby/Bobby**

**-Jubilee/Ray**

**-Amara/Roberto**

**-Danielle/Jamie**

**-Rahne/Sam**

**-Ororo/Logan**

Key:

"…" Speech

'…' Thoughts

(…) Extra information

**Songs are in bold**

Written letters or notes are underlined

_"Telepathic thoughts and the other line of the phone is in Italics and speech marks_"

Chapter 2

VvV Home VvV

_**20**__**th**__** December, Lexa and Pietro's house; late evening**_

Checking up on the kids who were in the room next door to the one that the rest of the women were sitting in, Ororo turned off the lamp that was still on, watching as the six young children all gradually fell asleep one by one, nestling into their cots. With a quiet snap she shut the door behind herself and nodded to her friends that it was ok to resume talking again. "Fast asleep, bless those children…"

Betsy looked to Lorna inquiringly, "talking of children; is it another Christmas baby?" Laying her head on the stomach of her best friend, Betsy frowned, giggling as she felt a kick where her hand was placed.

"I'm not _that_ fat!" exclaimed the pregnant mother.

"Sorry…"

"She ain't; look at her concentrating on yahre belly. Ah can betcha she has no ahdea what y'all jus' said!"

"I was listening!"

_**Other side of the room**_

"So how's life?" Lexa poured another cup of tea for Jean, herself and Wanda before walking to offer the pot around, letting Jean know she was still listening by turning around to look at her every now and then.

Sipping her scolding tea, the redhead frowned, thinking for a suitable answer, "well we're thinking about having another baby but haven't got round to that just yet. We might have a bit of a break first and let Rachel grow up. Um…nothing else is happening; everything's pretty average really."

"And how's Rachel doing?" questioned Lexa whilst she sat down again next to Jean.

"Rachel, well she's fine; getting to be a right genius and at such a young age; kids grow up so quickly huh?"

Wanda muttered to herself more than anyone; "tell me about it."

"And Scott?"

"Everything with Scott's fine, just had a little tiff…"

"A little one! Trust me Lex, you could hear it the other side of the mansion." At this remark, Wanda received a glare from Jean and so the Goth decided to go to the other side of the room, shoving Betsy to one side so she could place a hand on Lorna's bulging belly. "How far are you?"

Watching with amusement as both Wanda and Betsy squealed, feeling another kick, Lorna frowned as she thought it over, "um…8 months I think. It's due to be an end of January baby."

"Boy or girl?" piped up Amanda, stroking her own miniature lump with one hand whilst passing Kitty her cup of tea, "me and Kurt want a boy…he's so excited and it hasn't even been four months yet!"

"Ooh; now that would be telling…" and with those six words from Lorna the whole room, full of gossiping women, fell silent; Lorna felt the eyes of Rogue, Betsy, Ororo, Wanda, Amanda, Jean, Lexa and Kitty bearing down onto her. "What's yours Kitty?" but the girl just raised an eyebrow; not that easily fooled, leaving Lorna to her predicament. "Well I couldn't _possibly_ say…"

"Oh come on!"

"Ah think it'll be a boy; Piotr looks lahke a boy tahpe guy."

However Ororo sent Rogue a look, "child, you can't guess the sex of the baby by the look of the father."

Wanda spoke up, "well then; by the looks of the mother I think it'll be a boy." And with that the room burst into laughter whilst Wanda's head was shoved from Lorna's lap as the green haired woman made a mock-offended noise, "what? I do!"

"Well you're all wrong." Shocked, the whole room fell into silence; anticipating what Lorna was going to say next, and what she did say just shocked every body else twice as much as they thought it was going to. "_Illyana_ isn't a boy's name…"

VvVvVvV

_**A bar on the edge of town**_

Kurt walked over to the table the rest of the men were sitting around and deposited several drinks, joined moments later by Remy who put his own drink down before going to the pool table to give Logan and John their beers. Scott, Lance, Pietro and Warren all sat around the table, listening as Piotr described the holiday; a lot had happened in that year.

"_Et_ de family farm?"

"Surviving," full of worry, his thick Russian accent rumbled thoughtfully, "I noot sure whether to come back…boot I did; Lorna say to come home, so we did. I go back soon though, da."

Nodding, Remy looked thoughtful, "its always good t' go back every now _et_ den, jus' t; make sure everyone's _d'accord_; y' been back yet Johnny?" Questioned Remy to the Australian who returned to the table, muttering something about losing having lost the pool game drastically.

"Na mate; ain't got nothin to go back to…got everything oy need royt here."

Respectfully, he nodded to Pietro who simply smiled cheekily. "She's got you rapped around her little finger!"

Laughing at this out loud was Logan's reaction and he stuck up for John; "what, and Lexa hasn't?"

"Oh come on! With that girl you don't have a choice; she's a tricky one, always manages to get her own way no matter how hard I try…but I guess if it makes her happy," sighing wistfully, Pietro smiled and was clapped on the back by Lance.

"Soppy git. Fancy a game of pool?"

"Play de winner," Remy called after only for Lance to refuse the offer, "_quoi_? Jus' cuz y' know ol' Remy would win; widout cheating," was the comment he made to Warren who was laughing uproariously and looking very disbelieving. "_D'accord_…anyone fancy _un_ _petit_ game o' cards?"

Rubbing his hands together was to mentally prepare himself for the game and immediately Logan held out a hand for the pack that Remy drew out of his pocket; "give 'em here Cajun. I don't trust ya anymore than I can throw ol' tin can here. I ain't giving ya the chance to cheat on me," was the older man's reasoning when Remy attempted to refuse him the cards. "Don't make me come and get 'em _Gumbo_."

"Pass him the pack Remy," encouraged Scott, gulping the rest of his beer down so he could clear a space for his own hand whilst Warren lifted a hand to acknowledge he'd play. However, sat by the pool table, watching Lance and Pietro, Kurt simply refused the offer whilst the ex-Brotherhood boys decided to take their chance at a hand. "What we playing?" Scott asked as the hand was dealt out without choice of a game.

"Game's gin-rummy."

"Da, I play pool with Kurt; I drink it, yet I noot play gin," and with that Piotr stood up, taking a cue from Lance as the boy swung a chair around, leaning on the back of it whilst taking over Piotr's hand.

Examining his cards to contemplate his next choice of action, Logan immediately got into the game and smirked; sat opposite him was the Cajun and that was whom the older man was focussing on. As he threw down the first card, Logan raised an eyebrow at the cocky Cajun, muttering quietly to himself, "_game on_…"

_**Ten minutes later**_

With an expertise flourish, Remy Lebeau placed a set of four on the table and threw down his last card onto the pile; "looks like Remy win, eh _mes amis_?"

"Ya cheat! Ya knew oy wanted that ten!" John threw his own cards onto the table and, with a huff, folded his arms; leaning back into his chair to sulk until Logan raised an eyebrow at him. "Foyne, oy'm gonna watch the pool."

"That man's gonna have to grow up soon," laughed Warren, picking up the cards to shuffle them himself this time, "with a kid of his own he needs to act just a bit more like an adult."

Laughing uproariously, Lance picked up his hand whilst taking a swig of beer, "it isn't ever going to happen. Besides, talking of kids; what's happening with you Warren." The shrug showed everything and only made Lance laugh more, "should I say lack of?"

"Betsy ain' int' de whole kids t'ing?"

"Na…I guess it makes sense though, doesn't it? She is a model after all and it could potentially ruin her career; a successful one at that."

Frowning slightly as he picked up his cards, Remy seemed to pause momentarily, thinking best how to word his next sentence without making it sound spiteful or rude…but that wasn't possible so he just said it anyway. "De _femme_ shouldn' be throwing away de chance; she be lucky dat she can have kids…Rogue…well…Remy t'ink dat if Rogue knew Betsy wasn' having kids jus' t' keep her figure in check Betsy would be _mort _(dead) right now." It was commonly known to the Xmansion that Remy Lebeau thought himself to be the ideal father figure and wanted to live up to his own expectations…and Rogue herself wasn't exactly _not_ broody. Watching the other female inhabitants of the mansion practically spouting out children seemed to fuel Rogue's desperation at kids of her own. Only problem was that everyone knew it wouldn't be happening soon and that only seemed to make matters worse as Rogue went to drastic measures; that time she'd spent wearing the collar for a whole day had cost her a week or two in the infirmary.

"Well that's why everytime if people are talking about kids they avoid putting 'Betsy' and 'children' in the same sentence when Rogue's around," confirmed Pietro.

So Betsy hadn't told Rogue yet…at this fact Remy frowned, "let's jus' hope Rogue never finds out huh?"

Sorting out the hand he currently held, Warren put his first card down before looking at Remy, "personally, I think that if Rogue ever does find out…well, their friendship might go through a bit of hell." His worried expression said it all, not to mention that everybody sat around the table was thinking it too, because secrets in the Xmansion can never last long.

VvVvVvV

_**Ray and Jamie's dorm; 11:00pm**_

Passing himself another bit of sticky tape, one of the Jamie's stuck it down before another multiple folded the other end of the gift, passed a piece of tape by the first multiple. Other 'Jamies' worked on more gifts and in the time that Ray had been to have a shower they had all finished the presents, all but one. The last one – a gift for his girlfriend Danielle – Jamie decided to be sentimental about and wrapped that one alone.

"Where is everyone?" questioned Ray as he walked into the room, turning from Jamie to a mirror to style his hair.

Waiting to finish the present before answering, Jamie put the last one on the pile – writing on the label as he thought about the question, "dunno…didn't Kurt say earlier that they were going out?"

"Something like that…dunno where to though. They always like to leave us at Christmas…quite a bitch really." But even though he said that, Ray felt completely the opposite and was practically bursting to have the house to himself and the rest of his fellow 'New Mutants.' Nowadays they were all far from being that but they were still referred to the nickname out of simplicity the boy supposed.

Suddenly cheering voices resounded throughout the Mansion and a boy came tumbling through the room before disappearing again, leaving a trail of ice behind that soon began to melt. But neither Jamie nor Ray cared because they had heard what Bobby said and both charged out after Bobby, Ray following the iceman down the stairs whilst Jamie rebounded off of the wall the other side of the corridor. Whilst the boy himself careered after Bobby and Ray, his multiples headed off in the direction of the other New Mutants' rooms.

Tabitha came waltzing out from one of the girl's bathrooms in a towel and her underwear, too busy hand drying her hair with a towel to notice Jamie who came sprinting past. But as soon as his voice reached her ears the girl let out a whoop and rushed to her bedroom. As soon as she entered it; oblivious of her roommate Danny, who was currently reading magazines with Amara, Tabby threw the towel onto her bed and disappeared into the walk-in-wardrobe, practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"What's going on?" Amara mouthed at Danny, but the girl had no idea herself and so the Nova Roma princess repeated herself loudly to Tabby only to have a familiar looking box thrown at her.

"Professor Xavier has left the Mansion to meet with Magneto for the next few days and Mr McCoy went with him."

"So?"

Reappearing fully dressed in her new Christmas outfit; a slutty, _very_ short Christmas dress (the usual red dress with white wool in all the right places) with the hat to match and red heeled shoes, Tabby looked in confusion at Amara. "Duh! The monkey and Prof. X have left the mansion…" still neither girl got it although Tabby could see dawn finally rising on Danny's face. "Could I put it any simpler? The new mutants rule the school!" and with that finally Amara got the gist of things and let out a cheer – it looked like the New Mutants getting left in the mansion alone was becoming an annual event.

Taking example from her friend, Danny disappeared into the wardrobe and reappeared in less than five minutes in a matching outfit to Tabby's, although she went for the practical choice in red dolly shoes. Leaving their room was immediate and they were soon joined by Jubilee, Amara – who had ran to her own room – and Rahne – who was fiddling with her Christmas outfit. The girls linked arms and began to walk excitedly towards the stairs; heading to the usual hang out area of the Rec. room whilst Tabby carried the precious box under one arm.

Within moments they were running down the stairs; racing to the Rec. room in which waited the boys and Bobby received a welcome greeting from his girlfriend – her breasts practically flying out of her low cut dress. The rest all followed after, high on their adrenaline rush and panting with spontaneous fits of laughter as they fell onto their significant other halves. Rahne curled up next to Ray beside the Christmas tree, Jubilee sat beside Ray and Amara wriggled into Roberto's lap whilst Danielle followed suit; pecking her boyfriend Jamie on the cheek. However, Tabby and Bobby left the room, bringing back with them popcorn and drinks moments later that the boys had obviously prepared earlier.

"When did they leave?" questioned Rahne curiously, "their scents are pretty damn strong."

"You all heard Roberto cheering right?" all of the girls nodded, giving Roberto amused looks whilst the boy shrugged without a care in the world, "that was right after the jet had flown out of the waterfall. There's always that light that goes on after the jet leaves the mansion isn't there; well he started cheering as soon as it turned on."

"Awesome!"

Smirking, Tabby looked around; "you know what's even better? Look what I remembered," and the girl revealed the box she had been hiding behind her back, throwing it into the middle of the room whilst she sat on the sofa, lying her legs across Bobby's whilst the boy leant forward.

"Go on Jamie open it!"

"Can't I?"

"I think Tabby should; it's her box."

"Hey I was the one who let everyone know the professor had gone!"

"HEY!" yelled Bobby over the racket and stood up, balancing the box on one hand whilst he raised the other, "who was the one that the Professor told about him leaving? And!" exclaimed the boy as everyone else began to argue, "who got rid of Mr McCoy? If it wasn't for a little initiative thinking, Hank would have stayed; it was my little encouragement that we all looked forward to him looking after us this evening that had Mr McCoy running."

Standing behind Bobby to kiss him on the cheek, Tabby smiled, "nice one Bobby."

"Ya kinda fell sorry for Mr McCoy huh?"

"It is funny though ain't it."

"Go on then Bobby; open it."

"Ya hurry up!"

For a dramatic effect the boy placed the box on the floor again and knelt beside it with Tabby; holding one of the ends of a piece of tape, Bobby smirked at Tabby and bit his lip seductively before pulling it off with a wrench. Every member of the New Mutants gang shuddered excitedly, and practically squealed in excitement as the second piece of tape was pulled off before Bobby – slowly and teasingly – began to open the box.

"Oh Bobby!" begged the boy's girlfriend, "hurry up!"

"Well," Amara giggled, "now we all know what she says in bed!" laughter resounded throughout the Mansion suddenly silence as Bobby lifted the final flap of cardboard up.

"Horns for everyone my friends!" and he chucked each boy a set of reindeer horns that they all shoved onto their heads; Jamie fighting with several of his multiples so he could fit it on. When everyone was sat contentedly with a drink (non-alcoholic of course…?!) Bobby looked around; "Let the games begin! Truth, dare, double dare, kiss, command or promise, Ray?"

_**21st December, several hours later; 3:00am**_

Jamie; blushing furiously, finally removed the baubles from the dress he had 'borrowed' from Betsy and bowed to his friends who all stood up, clapping and cheering uproariously at his fabulous rendition of Cascada's '_last Christmas_.' Shrugging himself out of the gorgeous _Chanel_ dress, Jamie handed it to Amara who dotingly pressed out any creases as she hung it on the back of the door. Within seconds of doing so however, she practically tore it down and hid the dress out of sight whilst the others turned off every single light in the room, closing the door slowly so the candles didn't give the New Mutants away.

Voices were heard faintly outside; obviously loud due to the fact that everyone could hear them in the Rec Room and in a minute the entrance foyer was filled with uproarious laughter that was the men coming home from their evening out. It wasn't hard to work out that many of the guys were off their heads. Only an hour before at the most, the women had come home; a lot quieter but some of them still off their heads. Hushed and hardly daring to breathe the New Mutants simply waited until all the voices had disappeared upstairs and begged to the Gods that Logan wouldn't sense them.

They all let out deep breaths when, among some roaring laughter, each mutant could recognise Logan's laugh; his healing abilities hadn't kicked in yet and so the man was definitely still drunk.

When the last voice had disappeared upstairs, all of the mutants closed the Rec Room door properly and turned the lights on again, but dimly. Wouldn't want to risk anything.

However, Jubilee soon got everybody back into the swing of things and chucked around a few more beers to get the party started. Eventually music was put on faintly in the background but that was only about ten minutes later – when she was sure everybody should be in bed, Danny placed both hands to her temple and began to sift through the dreams of the older mutants. Within minutes they were all securely in dreamland and it would take a hell of a lot of noise to wake them up, not to mention the ice barrier Bobby formed on the walls and ceiling to bar any noise getting out. It was a foolproof, non-melting, soundproof encasing and the mutants relished in it.

Their annual games got into full swing and before long Jamie had given Amara her options at which she had fatally chosen truth, only to have to admit that she and Roberto had had sex together…a lot of times in their year+ relationship. With that she had been unable to pick her next victim and was thrown a bottle by Bobby that the girl spun around…only for it to land on Bobby.

He was only to happy to choose a dare and very willing – for the amusement factor – to perform the art of testing Jamie Madrox's frigidness. Running a finger very slowly down the centre of Jamie's body, starting from the top of his forehead all the way down to his toes, Bobby's finger turned itself to ice halfway down just to really test the youngest boy. But, to many people's disappointment, Jamie didn't flinch even the slightest bit.

With that it was Bobby's time to choose and he looked squarely at his girlfriend, "truth, dare, double dare, kiss, command or promise?"

"Well…I think I'll go for the one nobody's has picked so far; promise."

"You're abut to find out _why_ no one has picked it just yet," passing his girlfriend another drink was only to distract her whilst the boy thought this one over and – knowing everybody was drunk and so would only find it amusing – Bobby decided. "Promise me you'll give me a full oral check over later."

Giggling, and quite tipsy, Tabby ran a hand down her boyfriend's body, "there's not much to check on then is there?"

Laughter filled the room whilst Bobby simply did a fake gasp whilst removing the bottle from his girlfriend's hand, with his other he undid the button on his jeans and pulled the fly down. As though he'd done it every day of his life, Bobby pushed Tabitha into a kneeling position and made her apologise to his penis. "Good," the boy said when tabby had done as she was told with everyone else in the room in reels of laughter, "now kiss him better." And once Tabby had done as she was told; giving the very tip a light peck, Bobby put everything away and fell back onto the sofa, pulling Tabby onto his lap so that the girl was straddling him.

"Ew!" exclaimed Danielle. "Get a room!"

"We're in one," Tabby muttered whilst momentarily breaking away from kissing her boyfriend; everybody else just laughed.

_**Many hours later; 8:00am**_

Casually stroking the hair of his girlfriend as Rahne drifted between the land of the sleeping and the land of the conscious, Sam listened curiously to everybody's talk, which had somehow turned to children.

"Dunno what the obsession is; I mean, the woman had twins and now she has another and yet apparently they were talking about having a fourth kid. Pietro wants a boy and I think Lexa's contemplating the idea." Yawning, Bobby kissed Tabby on the forehead whilst the girl rested contentedly with her head on his shoulder. "I don't really want children yet…too young. Got my whole life ahead of me."

Giggling tiredly, Amara stifled a yawn, "really? And here I thought you were dying tomorrow."

"Well if he did you wouldn't be laughing then would you," wisely inputted Jubilee before laughing lightly.

Sam frowned, thinking upon something he'd overheard a couple of weeks ago and brought the subject back to children, "doesn't Warren want kids?" and when Bobby agreed with this question, Sam pouted thoughtfully, "I wonder why Betsy won't have them…she'd be a pretty cool mum. She eats healthily, isn't too much of a drinker, doesn't smoke or do drugs and can afford to have a kid, not to mention Warren's rich enough to buy a baby anything it could ever want."

Reminded of something as Betsy's _Chanel_ dress caught her eye, Amara replied, "but it would ruin her modelling career though…wouldn't it?"

"Yeh," knowing the exact conversation having heard it discussed between Kitty and Betsy herself just a few days earlier, the girl looked around knowledgeably, making sure everyone's attention was on her as the other New Mutants began to wake up, slowly but surely. "That's exactly why she doesn't want kids; she can't bear the thought of stretch marks and won't have children just in case the marks ruin her figure and effectively finished her career."

Tabby – at this latest news – looked thoughtful and contemplated something for a while, before, turning to Ray, she spoke what would become dreaded words; "truth, dare, double dare, kiss, command or promise?"

"Ooh I'm feeling a bit kinky this morning after that nap," this statement caused wolf whistles and sleepy cheers at which Ray bowed, thanking his admirers with many winks. "I'll be going for a command I think, Tabitha." The silence that followed those words was deafening: everybody in the room could feel the aura spreading from Tabby that could only mean one thing; she was considering a command that could potentially cause a hell of a lot of trouble. A command that the legendary Ray 'never-backed-down-from-a-dare' Crisp could find fatal. "Well? Come on Tabby; give it to me. I can handle anything after last night!"

"You are going to regret that Ray," warned the blonde as her eyes sparkled mischievously. Maybe it was the sleepiness that made her do it…maybe the drink was still getting to her…or possibly Tabitha Smith was just feeling in one of her daring moods. But whatever it was, the words slipped out of her mouth as easily as if Tabby had been wanting to say them for the whole of her life; "I command you to let Rogue know _exactly_ why Betsy Braddock isn't having children…"

Many swear words followed that simply command and even Bobby Drake himself stood up in surprise, the room suddenly waking up in shock, "no way Tabitha!"

"That's going a bit too far isn't it?"

"Rogue will kill her!" Rahne said worriedly, snuggling into Sam's chest as they curled up by the Christmas tree.

But in reply Tabby simply raised both hands for silence before finally speaking up; "if she kills her Betsy will deserve it, and anyway; that girl needs to be knocked down a notch or two. Some people in this world can't have children and if one of those who can isn't going to just because of her _bloody_ figure then she deserves _everything_ she gets!" The passion in the girl's voice hit Bobby hard and he looked at his girlfriend inquisitively, but Tabby simply refused to meet his eye.

Boldly raising a hand to silence everyone Amara smiled at Tabby, "I agree; Betsy shouldn't be so stuck up."

"It's her choice if she doesn't wanna have kids!"

"So! If she didn't wanna have kids she should have just said that instead of telling everyone she didn't want them because she might get _stretch_ _marks that would ruin her figure_." Roberto's accurate impression seemed to reach out to everyone because after that nobody said a word more and simply stared at Ray. It was all up to him and the boy took the bull by the horns.

Standing up with a fist to his chest as though honoured by the challenge awaiting him, Ray lifted his head proudly, "alright then. I accept!"

And exactly a second later the New Mutants heard voices coming down the stairs, tired and quiet, but voices nonetheless. Jamie was quick to action: "quick! Hide everything!" Several items were chucked over the sofa; including the _Chanel_ dress, and box along with it's contents as the New Mutant's annual game came to an end and, as usual, the television was switched on just as several Xmen walked into the room.

Immediately the group got into their roles, trying to ignore the fact that the first two in the room were Rogue and Betsy.

"Bobby didn't I tell you to turn up the TV?"

"I couldn't earlier just in case some people had hangovers," and Bobby nodded to Remy who stroked his face delicately in a self-pitying manner.

"Well do it now; we still can't hear it from over here," Ray stuck up for his girlfriend, placing an arm around her whilst raising the other in greeting to the older mutants, "morning. Have fun yesterday evening?"

Suspicious, Rogue eyed them all; "have y'all been t' bed at all; did ya sleep in here yesterday? Ahn where's tha Professor ahn Hank?"

"Left yesterday to see someone; they told Logan and Ororo first I think and they'll be back in time for Christmas Eve…who was it that they saw?"

"Wasn't it something to do with the President?" asked Jamie, but soon yelped as he was electrocuted slightly for his apparent stupidity.

"No _stupid_ that was last week, he's meeting with Magneto, and Hank just went along to get out…couldn't imagine why?" Roberto sent Bobby a look and the two boys sniggered.

"Yeh, it's only us here."

Rolling her eyes as she sat on the nearest sofa, Wanda sighed whilst muttering quietly, "I think that's _why_ he went."

Giggling, Kitty leant over and whispered back to the Goth; "a choice between the New Mutants and Magneto and I think I know who I'd pick every time!"

"Yahre telling meh!"

"Well I dunno about that one," Lorna said with a laugh before being confronted with at least a dozen surprised greetings, "hey guys! Nice to see you too," overwhelmed as all of the girls and several Jamie's leapt to hug her at once, the pregnant woman flopped down on a chair that Bobby vacated for her. "Miss me huh?"

The comment went unnoticed as the mutants all instead discovered the obvious bump and Amara squealed delightedly before kneeling beside Lorna to rest her head against it, "we didn't know you came home last night! Ooh! You're pregnant! How old is it?"

"She's 8 months gone."

"She!"

"Oh I knew you'd have a girl as your first kid!" and with that Danielle joined Amara on the floor, "and she's gonna be the most beautiful gal in the whole wide world," cooed Danny to Lorna's bulging stomach, "yes she _is_!"

Unfazed by the reaction she has received by almost everyone Lorna simply sat back with a smile, "you think?"

"Well with her mother's looks that'll be enough," Bobby cheekily spoke up, almost yelping when Tabby hit him over the head.

Jubilee realised something and spoke up from Ray's lap – which she was currently sat on, "that must mean Piotr's home?" unknowingly she got a look behind her from Ray who seemed to be jealous of this question; Jubes had got quite a crush on the large mutant when he'd first arrived. But her next comment soothed Ray, whom Jubilee had felt tensing at the mention of her ex-crush, "how was your holiday?"

"Fantastic, thanks."

But just as she started to talk about the time away, Ray brought her crashing back down to earth, "your quite big…will you get any bigger?"

"Just a tad…but hopefully I won't get too bad stretch marks when she comes out," and the girl would have gone on to say more but before Lorna could even open her mouth Ray had spoken up, leaving the whole room in silence.

True to his word, the boy raised his head high, fulfilling his 'command', "isn't that why you don't want to have kids Betsy; in case the stretch marks ruin you modelling career?"

"Uh…" was all Betsy could say and the woman bit her lip fearfully and rightfully so: sat beside her, her face contorted with rage as she directed a full on death glare at Betsy, was Rogue Lebeau.

**End of Chapter**

Heya! I hope everybody liked this chapter cuz I've been up all day typing it! Dun, dun, duuun! Betsy's in bollocks, huh? Ooh and I really hope you liked the New Mutants fun! That box is full of fun things to do and I hope you all found them as amusing as I did when writing them! .x.Thriller.x.


	3. Festive Feuding

Three more days to go!!! Three more days 'till Christmas! Blimey…for the amount of time I spend, day and night – seriously, I was up till 2 in the morning finishing last chapter so that it could go up (sure it was late but no one cares…lol) – I've received TWO reviews?! It makes me so sad…even if you don't like it just tell me why and maybe I can make it more likeable? Constructive criticism is better than no criticism! Thank you

Key:

"…" Speech

'…' Thoughts

(…) Extra information

**Songs are in bold**

Written letters or notes are underlined

_"Telepathic thoughts and the other line of the phone is in Italics and speech marks_"

Chapter 3

VvV Festive Feuding VvV

_**22**__**nd**__** December, Xmansion, early morning; 6:00am (!!!)**_

"RIGHT!" bellowed a voice over the tired but passionate complaints coming from everybody in the Danger Room and immediately the New Mutants silenced, automatically forming a line that Logan began to march down. "Charles is away and in his place I'm the one to hand out punishments…"

An anonymous voice rang out from further down the line; "for what?"

"Yeh what did we do?"

"Innocent until proven guilty!" Jubilee's words silence the gang of mutants who all looked down the line at her causing the girl to hop from foot to foot in her embarrassment.

Amara nudged Jubilee, whose eyes shifted nervously around, blushing slightly, "we don't even have anything to be innocent of."

"Well now; I don' quite agree with that," snarled Logan, "although I guess it was my fault…I shouldn't have left 'icepick' here in charge," and the older mutant caused Bobby Drake to blush furiously as the rest of the New Mutants laughed quietly at this remark. "As for your question, Drake, 'for what?'" getting up close and personal in Bobby's face quietened the laughter from the rest of the New Mutants. Scraping his teeth together, Logan scowled at Bobby before pulling back to address the whole group. "Number 1: sleeping in the Rec. room _without_ permission is forbidden! Number 2: staying up all night just because there are no mature adults to tell you to go to bed is _not_ allowed! And number THREE!" every single mutant bowed their head, unable to catch Logan's eye, but as Wolverine's voice suddenly softened they all looked up; too ashamed to look away. It would have been much better to have been shouted at and all of the mutants would have rather Logan yelled at them for ten more minutes than use the disappointed tone of voice he was talking in now. "To potentially ruin two people's Christmas…that's just not acceptable."

Wishing they could all say something, several members of the New Mutants opened their mouths but nobody could make the situation any better. They had all witnessed Rogue getting up and leaving the Rec room; silent except from a sob that managed to escape her lips…and nobody could forget the desperate manner in which Betsy had called after her friend.

"Iceman," called Logan in a slightly less harsh tone this time, "you're first. Game's snowball-fight; level 3."

At this no one even cheered because the simulation wasn't even slightly fun; you had to stand on your own, dodging and attempting to take out machines that consistently fired snowballs at you whilst being humiliated as they constantly hit you from every direction. It was more a tactic to get the mutants used to subject humiliation and none of them liked it one bit. Besides, the bruises that came with it weren't exactly welcome.

VvVvVvV

_**Remy and Rogue's dorm; lunchtime**_

"Chere?" knocks resounded on the door but they were blatantly ignored; after the first few attempts to get in the room, Remy seemed to give up and the room fell into silence again, leaving Rogue alone so she could continue crying into her pillow. It was something the Goth had seen Kitty doing many a time but she never knew who satisfying it was to let it all out whilst muffling the sound. Nobody could hear her anyway; each of the older mutants was allocated an individual dorm unless they were married, in which case they shared it – these dorms down a different side of the mansion to permit a bit of privacy.

However the fact that she shared with Remy made no difference; Rogue had locked the man out at first and hadn't spoken to him the whole of yesterday night. Being experienced with Rogue in bad moods, the Cajun had thankfully left it.

But Remy Lebeau was not a patient man.

With a sparkle in his eye the man looked carefully around to make sure nobody was outside and with deft movement he swung himself out of the bathroom down the end of the hallway – the couples all had an ensuite but it was just in case. Planting his feet securely on the windowsill, Remy gripped onto the ledge of the window, crouched down whilst he scanned the visible garden for any human life. Unable to notice any with his unusually expertise eyesight, the boy straightened up and pulled himself with swift, controlled movements onto the roof above. Above the window the roof was in a sort of V shape and stuck out slightly, so the Cajun straddled this before picking out his favourable route – this was a common occurrence with Rogue. Sure he could just pick the lock but that would infuriate the woman and knowing Rogue, she'd have left the key in the lock especially

Problem was in winter the roof got slippery…and Remy hadn't had the need any winter before to break into this exact room so he had no idea what route was best for the icy conditions. Not to mention the snow as a light flake landed on the tip of his nose.

Looking up, the Cajun pouted in a huff whilst thinking carefully about his decisions and finally, after much time spent just sat there, he made a move and – with both feet planted securely on the bottom of the room where two bits stuck out slightly, he stood up tall. Surveying the roof with a frown, Remy placed both hands on the point of the roof he was straddling and edged forward – slowly but swiftly.

Gripping hold of the main roof, Remy swung up onto the steep slope and began to scale it before finally, in hardly a minute he had got to the flat bit in the middle of the roof; now it was simply locating the right window…

_**Remy and Rogue's dorm**_

Marylin Manson wasn't exactly soothing, and the decibels at which she played the music weren't really making her headache go away but it took the woman's mind off of things. Namely Betsy Braddock. Within minutes though, even over the loud music and her own heart wrenching sobs, Rogue ears pricked as she heard movement outside. How she heard the faint sounds of somebody dropping carefully onto her balcony, she had no idea but she did and within moments the woman realised the one door around this place she hadn't locked. Remy came waltzing in through the double doors, leaving them open behind him and fully pulling back the curtains to let daylight into the pitch-black room.

"What tha fuck ahre ya doin'!" exclaimed Rogue only to receive an unimpressed glance from Remy as the man began to remove his clothes there and then whilst heading into the bathroom.

"Dis Cajun needs a shower _petit_, _et_ a change of clothes."

"But ah-" and Rogue left her sentence at that, open mouthed and wide eyed as Remy disappeared into the bathroom almost immediately. With a growl and a furious glare at the door, Rogue turned off her radio and instead chose to stand on her balcony, leaning over the railings without a care in the world for the freezing weather.

Soon Remy joined her, walking up behind the Goth to cuddle her from behind, pulling the shivering woman into this warm chest as Remy wrapped his trench coat around the two of them, kissing Rogue's snow covered cheek. Neither said a word, neither had to; the silence was enough in the grey, mid-afternoon lack of sun.

VvVvVvV

_**The Nursery; 3:00pm**_

Sat down in the middle of the playpen, Elizabeth Grey Braddock was lonely. The only children in the room were Iris, Tory and Maddie Maximoff; only there because their parents were visiting for the afternoon and they all had needed a long nap. Having hidden in the room all day long, she didn't bother leaving it even when Lexa came down and delivered her children to their temporary cribs; Pietro hadn't noticed Betsy sat in the corner but Lexa had and – able to sense the woman's emotions – just left her. Due to her state, Betsy was grateful; she was not one to enjoy company when she was in a state.

Without warning, very faint giggling – as though she was trying not to let anyone else know that she was laughing – came from Tory's cot and the toddler sat up, watching something.

Attempting her very best to ignore the girl was proving impossible for Betsy and finally she decided to find out what the source for this amusement was. Simple; a large spider was slowly making its way delicately around the edge of Tory's cot, creeping around it in such a manner that seemed to cause immense delight to the toddler; it looked like Tory was her mother's child. When her secret amusement was discovered though, Tory smiled at Betsy nonchalantly and lay back down in her cot, laughing quietly to herself. It was as though she knew that Betsy wasn't in too good a mood, although it only seemed to cheer up the stretch-mark, child fearing model and within seconds Elizabeth Braddock had meandered over to the older twin's cot, leaning over to smile down at the girl.

"Hi, hi!" exclaimed Tory and shortly after saying this, her sister Iris spoke up.

"Hi, hi! Play time!"

"You wanna play do you, luv?" cooed Betsy down to Iris how was in the crib next to Tory's and as they both stood up, gripping the edges of their cots, the two almost simultaneously started to bounce up and down. "I guess so…" muttered Betsy at the chanting of 'play.' Picking Iris up, Betsy set her down in the playpen and then returned to Tory to let the girl join. When the three of them were comfortable, Betsy looked down at the two young girls and frowned, "stupid question, but; what do you want to play?"

"Tag!"

"Nooooooooooooooooo!" walking carefully over to a box full of toys, Tory – the older and more dominant of the twins – seemed to fall back in a sitting position and then opened her box. "Sharks!"

Joined instantly by Iris, the girl shoved the mentioned animal into her sister's face but Iris just frowned, "no, no!" throwing a '_My Little Pony'_ out behind her in disgust, Iris picked up a different toy, exclaiming delightedly; "Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuzz Lightyear! To the rescue!"

"I wanna be Woody…no, no; I wanna be Rex! ROAR!" and with that a game of who-knew-what began, leaving Betsy to the last Maximoff child who began to wake slowly up at the noise surrounding her.

Bursting bubbles and squealing delightedly as Betsy's face appeared over her crib, Maddie raised both podgy hands expectantly and was lifted from her sleeping quarters into the snugly arms of Betsy, who took a tissue from nearby – one of many – and wiped the baby's mouth. "Afternoon. Good nap?" and with that Betsy bounced baby Maddie on her arm, blowing raspberries at her for the girl's delight. "What are you sisters doing? Hmmm?" using her baby voice, Betsy continued to croon at Maddie before sitting down with the girl nestled in her lap.

Letting out a little scream in delight as Betsy picked up the '_My Little Pony'_ from nearby, Maddie tried to take it but gave up after a while and instead chose to bat at the pony's hair, making gurgling giggling noises. "Pony!"

"No Maddie," plodding over, Tory picked up Bo Peep on the way with the porcelain doll's toy sheep and dangled those in front of Maddie's face making the girl scream in further excitement. Laying out a blanket for Maddie to comfortably lie on as her sister showed her the 'right toys to play with', Betsy turned to Iris who was sat in her dungarees with her legs stuck out in front of herself, rolling a ball between her feet.

"Watcha got there, Iris?"

"Ball…" the girl said dejectedly until Betsy offered to play. "Right," taking the chance at being in control, Iris stood up and showed Betsy where to sit, taking her hand to lead the woman there. "You sit here and I'll sit here!" doing as she said, Iris plonked herself on a cushion and proceeded to throw the ball more _at_ Betsy than to her.

"Oi cheeky!" laughed the model before rolling the ball past Iris who couldn't quite reach it. Falling off of her cushion, much to Betsy's amusement, Iris went tearing after the ball and before long had picked it up, throwing it with everything she'd got back to Betsy.

After a while of playing this game Tory joined in, and Betsy decided to make it more of a triangle, sitting next to Maddie as the youngest girl kicked her legs about and lifted her head slightly to look around. When the ball came rolling past her the young girl opened her palms and managed to do several claps which not only delighted Betsy but the other girls too and they all sat around Maddie. Tory stood in Betsy's lap to clap at her at which the youngest girl screamed delightedly before copying the movement.

_**Outside the room**_

"She's never clapped for me before! Ooh; that's so cute!" crooned Lexa in a whisper and she turned to Warren standing beside her, "you're telling me that _that_ girl doesn't want kids? She's fantastic with them; Tory hasn't hit Iris yet!"

"I dunno…you know what she says whenever I mention them; 'I've got an important runway in half a year'; 'I need to think about my figure…'"

Frowning was all Lexa could do but eventually she turned to Warren, "how's Rogue doing now? I heard what happened yesterday"

"Won't talk to her and so Remy's sticking up for the girl by ignoring me; he just wants to anyways cuz of Rogue and mine's past," at this Lexa giggled before turning back to watching Betsy. "Ah well; it's Christmas. They'll make it up," Lexa made an agreeing noise and at that the two of them left Betsy to the kids – it looked like Lexa had made the right choice about Maddie's godmother.

VvVvVvV

_**Rec. Room, late afternoon; 5:00pm**_

Closing her eyes, Amara snuggled into Roberto's shoulder as the boy wrapped an arm around her, watching as Bobby iced Tabby up to finally put the fairy on the Christmas tree. Decorations finished, it was now time for the presents…but it looked like they still had several days to wait. Without saying a word to anyone, Ray spontaneously turned on the television and frowned, "hey! I forgot the Christmas fair was opening this evening, aren't some of the other guys working on it?"

"Yup, they went out earlier."

"Do you think Logan will let us go?"

At that precise moment Logan himself walked into the room, frowning thoughtfully at Rahne's words, "I'd been thinking about that one myself this morning…if it were up to me, it would definitely have been a no."

"But it was up to me, upon Charles request and I decided I think you've all learnt your lesson," her eyes roamed to a colourful bruise rising on Jamie's arm. "Logan was just coming in to offer you all a lift down; I suppose you'll all be going?"

A cheer resounded throughout the room at this and most of the mutants stood up; Amara, Jubilee and Rahne however stayed seated and just smiled, "we're babysitting tonight," Jubes stated. This was met with a few groans in remembrance and Ray kissed his girlfriend on the cheek.

"I'll win ya something; I promise."

"What? Some candyfloss?" giggled Tabitha, before raising both hands as she was given a look, "joking! Just joking! Well have fun here you guys; I expect my secret stash to be left well alone," and with that she winked; Logan having left the room at the amount of cheering. Linking arms with Danny as the group of New Mutants left the Rec. Room, Tabby smiled, "looks like it's just you and me, eh girl? We'll have a blast!"

"You betcha!" exclaimed Danny, racing the other girl towards the garage.

**End of Chapter**

Hey, hey! Hope you liked; not too eventful, mainly just sentimental values of Christmas. Fair next chapter though, so that should be fun! Please enjoy and review! .x.Thriller.x.


	4. the Christmas Fair

Last chapter was a bit short so I hope this one makes up for it! Please enjoy!

Key:

"…" Speech

'…' Thoughts

(…) Extra information

**Songs are in bold**

Written letters or notes are underlined

_"Telepathic thoughts and the other line of the phone is in Italics and speech marks_"

Chapter 4

VvV the Christmas Fair VvV

_**22**__**nd**__** December, Bayville fun fair; 7:00pm**_

Piled under a large stack of cuddly toys, Tabby beamed thankfully to Bobby at the latest edition and kissed her new, giant, purple gorilla on the forehead, giggling with glee as Danny gasped jealously. With wide eyes and a puppy dog expression, Danielle knew her boyfriend couldn't refuse her begs and so the boy stood up to the basketball ring, frowning in concentration after paying for five basketballs. 'Shoot three straight in the hoop and the gorilla is yours' read the sign above and, almost sweating in his situation of frustrating pressure, Jamie prepared the first ball.

Number one went straight in the hoop without any doubt, however number two wasn't so lucky and bounced off the ring into the net below, much to Jamie's disappointment. Behind him the gang of New Mutants groaned but Danny cheered her boyfriend on delightedly, simply happy he was trying especially for her. Without second thought number three shot into the hoop and Jamie only had to get one more in.

The attendant behind the counter got bored of Jamie's pre-shooting preparation and turned the other way, ignorant of what was happening. He only turned to give Jamie an unimpressed look as number four missed completely and fortunately turned away at number five before Jamie threw it. Straight away everybody knew the ball wouldn't make it – in his excitement Jamie has given the ball a bit too much push and it practically flew towards the hoop. Disappointedly the youngest mutant turned away with a sigh, only to turn back to the game in shock as all of his friends erupted in cheers and whoops around him.

Three out of five balls were sitting snugly into the net and with a surprised expression the attendant passed over a giant orange gorilla – Danielle's requested colour – before taking money from the next people whom arrived. Moving on towards the next set of games, the New Mutants all congratulated Jamie, secretly giving Bobby a clap on the back. Jamie hadn't noticed the quickly melting ice path that the basketball had followed int the hoop and when her boyfriend wasn't looking as Ray congratulated him, Danny gave Bobby a thank you kiss on the cheek at which the boy smiled.

"No problem; merry Christmas!"

"You cheesy bastard," exclaimed Tabby and kissed him full on the lips before depositing the cuddly toys she held into Bobby's arms, trying herself at a 'claw' game (the one where you have to pick up a toy to win it.) Failures were her first two goes and with an imploring look, Tabby batted her eyelashes towards Bobby who took the hint. Within one attempt at manoeuvring the claws, Bobby Drake had picked up the exact toy Tabitha wanted and it dropped into the tunnel without a fuss; shooting into Tabby's arms as she jumped delightedly into Bobby's. Cuddling the toy in her arms, Tabby and Bobby ran after the rest of the NMs, wiping the ice off of the cuddly bear and praying nobody would notice the ice melting on the claw.

_**Over the other side of the Fair**_

"Come on big boy," Lorna grabbed Piotr's arm as the man stood watching several people attempting to win at another set of basketball hoops. "I've got the perfect game for you!"

Following after the two after finishing their basketball games, Remy muttered dejectedly in french about the game being 'hitched' having only scored one basketball whilst Pietro handed a large blue gorilla to his wife Lexa, who clutched it delightedly. Rogue however stayed behind and caught the group up in less than a minute, handing over to Remy the biggest scarlet gorilla he'd seen in his life at which John smiled imploringly to Wanda.

"You're supposed to win _me_ things!" the girl exclaimed, giggling as John's face fell. However they all soon stopped as Lorna reached the game she had mentioned, pushing Piotr towards it, but the man held back as John lunged forward. Taking the hammer in one hand, John leant on it smirking confidently at Wanda whilst handing over some money and eventually, after what seemed years of preparation, he held the hammer high over his head and swung it down…

To put it nicely…he failed at winning Wanda anything. To make matters worse, he was immediately shown up by Rogue who hit the top bell with ease, shocking the guy monitoring the hammer game so much that she picked up her own toy, hitting Wanda over the head with the inflatable hammer she won. "Here ya go, ya losah."

"Aw thanks!" gleefully Wanda took the toy and turned to her boyfriend, hitting John over the head with an unimpressed look.

"Go on Piotr," egged on Lorna, clutching confidently onto the bulging muscles in the mutant's arms, hidden by a jumper that still managed to show just how huge his arms were. With a gleeful smile as her boyfriend picked up the hammer – after what seemed an age of encouragement from everyone else – Lorna stood back.

Good idea too. Acting as though he were simply putting the hammer back on the ground; with hardly any force at all, Piotr swung it down and immediately hit the bell but apparently, even though he passed his pregnant girlfriend an inflatable baseball bat, it wasn't good enough.

Remy joined John in jumping up and down and the two chanted excitedly, 'hit it! Hit it! Hit it!' whilst Pietro hooked his arm around Lexa's waist before exclaiming, "put some force into it big guy!"

With a look that obviously showed he wasn't happy but he'd do it anyway, Piotr Rasputin swung the hammer high above his head – oblivious to the weight of it as though the thing was only as heavy as the inflatable replicas. And – with a clanking noise hidden by tumultuous chanting from gathering crowds – Colossus's arms brought the hammer swinging back down with direct aim onto the button.

Immediately the bell hit the top…but if that wasn't enough it fell back down with such force only to rebound up again; so many times in fact that when Piotr was getting his prize he got many of them at that! Kurt and Scott gave theirs respectively to Amanda and Jean, Remy passed his gallantly to Rogue, imitating John who revelled in the chance to give Wanda something finally; Lexa managed to get in there first and ended up giving her bat to Pietro, not before hitting him with it first whilst Piotr and Lorna both got one each.

Stunned, the hammer attendant simply watched in silence as the group walked off, the incredibly strong Piotr flexing his muscles to many cheers from his gang of fellow mutants. John however was too busy running screaming away from the gang as Wanda and Rogue teamed up against the man; hitting him ferociously with their hammer and bat, giggling as John disappeared, hiding behind a candyfloss van.

"So where's Kitty?" curiously looking around at the lack of vitality and 'cuteness', Lexa frowned as John suddenly smacked himself on the forehead and ran off whilst dragging Wanda behind.

Giggling, Rogue waved goodbye to Wanda who was looking pleadingly back at the group. "She's working with Lance at a main stall; they're doing magic tricks ahn John's helping out, ya know, pretending ta do 'magic' fahre tricks with his lovelah assistant Wanda. Ooh!" excitedly leading the group in the direction of the mentioned stall, Rogue smirked, "he's also picking out a membah of tha audience ta 'turn them inta fahre." With a knowing, sly smile, Rogue shoved her way through the crowd as the magic act began.

Standing upon the stage before the large audience was Lance with his slightly pregnant assistant Kitty; the bump craftily hidden beneath a swirl of fabric that was distinctively Christmas in a seasonal red. Missing the opening, the group watched in amusement as Lance attempted to do several tricks and failed, helped by his calm yet charismatic helper; the beautifully brave _Chaton_ (kitten.) "And now…with that _encouraging_ display of magic," the audience laughed as though on cue, focussing on Lance so much that they didn't notice a large rectangular box being brought out on stage until he gestured to it. "I will now perform a trick that will – if all goes as planned – gain the trust and admiration any magician deserves! It is time for our _final_ trick" Taking a swath of cloth from an assistant, Lance slowly began to unwrap it whilst Kitty, playing her part to a 'T', walked around the box, gesturing to it with smooth flowing motions to attract the audiences attention. Her smile was as radiant as though she was not about to have knives stuck in her. Because that was exactly what the audience found out moments later when Lance removed the cloth to reveal at least a dozen, dangerously sharp, samurai swords. Courtesy of Betsy Braddock.

"Let me introduce you," Lance spoke loudly; confidence radiating off of both him and Kitty's elegantly graceful smile, "to my collection of professional, genuine Samurai fighting swords." Using a single hand, Kitty moved it as though she were stroking one sword, staying well clear of the edges, just as well as any professional assistant. And like any other assistant she soon waltzed over to – what could potentially be – her death box. Opening up the rectangular box, covered in creative patterns of swirls and random squiggles – courtesy of several mutant children – Kitty slowly turned it around on its rotating wheels.

Nobody in the audience, and a member was even permitted to come up and feel all the way around for any hidden latches, could see any issues with the box or any means of escape. And that was when Lance Alvers – known to the crowd as 'Shakedown', the crowd thrilling Magician – said the fatal words; "and now my assistant, the beautifully brave _Chaton_ shall step into the box."

Doing as told, with a helpful hand by Lance who had passed his swords over to an extra assistant, Kitty Pryde stepped into the box, turning around so that she could face the audience; both arms up above her head in an elegant poise that showed calmness by the lack of shaking. She didn't move an inch and when asked if comfortable simply grinned, "well I'm sure there are more comfortable positions than this, but it'll do I suppose." And, receiving many claps and cheers – including several whoops from the gang at the front – the door was closed upon her smiling face. As soon as this was done the young woman took several deep breaths, closing her eyes in preparatory calmness whilst Lance allowed several audience members to examine the box to check for any hidden areas. None found and 'Shakedown' took his first sword, gripping the end firmly in one hand whilst balancing the blade with the other before; the prove that it was real and just as sharp as it looked, he stuck the blade through a chunk of meat. It sliced cleanly through and, if something went wrong, everybody knew that was exactly what would happen to Kitty…

"'_Chaton'_ are you ready?"

"As much as I'll ever be!" the girl called back with much nervous tittering from the crowd.

"The first sword is going in," and – as originally planned – three seconds after this was said Lance stuck the tip in through the box. Kitty's eyes fell upon it before she calmed herself and put her powers in full element allowing the thin blade to pass straight through her stomach and out the other side, visible to everybody as the extra assistant turned the box around. Within a minute eleven swords had been stuck through in various places, and finally; saving a specific rectangle till last, Lance turned to the audience. "The final sword will go directly through the beautifully brave _Chaton_'s head, and if everything goes as planned we wont have to pay _too_ much for brain surgery." Unable to resist, Kitty giggled, her voice drowned by the laughter from the gradually growing crowd.

And finally, with a familiar call from Lance and at Kitty's reply, the tip of the sword entered the box, directly between Kitty's eyes at which she closed them and breathed deeply, feeling the particles passing over her own as the sword moved directly through the centre of her brain. One slip, the tiniest surprise and her life would be over before she could do anything about it.

Slowly the box was turned with a very cautious attitude from Lance who did this part himself, showing the audience the direct passage of the sword. Much cheering and applauding rang out before finally Lance could remove the swords, which he did as quickly yet carefully as possible, knowing Kitty would be feeling the exhaustion of everything by now.

As the last one was removed – fortunately lacking any blood – Lance sprung open the door to reveal a perfectly poised, calm and smiling Kitty Pryde. Helping his assistant out of the box with one hand, Lance let her step up and take the deserved applause, which the girl did with much grace and not a single blush – she would thank Wanda's make up for that later. The Magician himself stood up to the front of the stage in front of an enormous crowd that had cumulated and took a bow with Kitty.

"Thank you very much; thank you for watching! I have been 'Shakedown' and this has been my wonderful assistant, the beautifully brave _Chaton_!"

Suddenly the stage went dark and Kitty was passed a pink, sparkling microphone as her headset was turned off; handed backstage where it would be passed over to Wanda who was momentarily prepping herself with John – a few last minute kisses and some extra hair flattening.

Music started up in the darkness – the appropriate choice of The Prodigy's '_fire starter_' – and Kitty held her microphone to her mouth whilst gesturing to the entrance of the stage. "And now! Ladies and Gentlemen! Introducing our next act; the one and only…PYRO and his assistant, THE SCARLET WITCH!"

Screams and cheers went up through the crowds although nobody and a clue who the two were, but it looked like Kitty and the music had got everybody in the mood because they were soon chanting Pyro. The volumes were gradually rising until the man himself appeared on stage amongst shooting flames of fire. Linking arms with him was a beautiful, tall, leggy Wanda who smiled as in practise and took in the warm welcome.

"Thank you, thank you!" greeted Pyro himself and stepped up to the front of the stage whilst Wanda made a circle around Kitty and Lance who, as in practise, stood close together in a designated spot. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls oy would loyke to thank you for your warm welcome and would loyke you to give a final hand to the wonderful 'Shakedown' and _Chaton_!"

Following up with his Quicksilver-speed talking, Pyro only gave the crowd enough time for a short clap and cheer before he manipulated the flames still spouting from flame-throwers at the entrance to create a circular wall of fire around Kitty and Lance. In an instant the fire had cleared, leaving no scorch marks but certainly leaving no trace of the two previous people. A momentary pause from the audience was all it took before they jumped up, screaming and cheering in applauds.

"Thank you! Thank you! That was moy first trick and that was 'Shakedown' and the beautifully brave _Chaton_, ladies and gentlemen! Phew…ain't we glad to be rid of those two," Wanda hit John lightly over the head with a baton before handing it to the man who was at the moment receiving tumultuous laughter and continuous applause. Being passed the other baton, John twirled both in his hands and paused momentarily as though thinking wistfully back to a fond memory. "Ah…thank God for mothers," and with that he threw both batons in the air, took a bow and caught them both with expertise skill amongst much laughter.

"Show off…" muttered Wanda before taking both batons, twirling them herself to much competitive 'ooh-ing' from the audience before she lit all four ends. Continuing to throw both batons in the air, she aimed them perfectly and John spun on the spot to catch both, twirling them in his hand without a fear for the fire erupting at the balled ends. Taking one to the side, Pyro twirled it in his fingertips – a skill learnt form Gambit and his Bo-staff – and brought the other one down to his face. Concentrating slightly, John blew on the flame and it immediately sprouted forth as though a dragon was breathing fire with much tumultuous applauding. Switching positions, John brought his other hand to his face whilst twirling the first baton and this time when he blew the fire it erupted into the air, creating a loop-the-loop in mid-air. Apparently shocked with himself was John's reaction, "ooh, wasn't that impressive!" and with that the man brought both batons in front of his face and blew on them.

Delighted, the audience took a simultaneous gasp as the fire performed several entwining loop the loops before dying down so that it flickered endlessly again on the ends of the batons. "That was trick number two and oy hope you enjoyed! This is trick number three so watch out; Scarlet Witch my dear, please step into the audience and foynd me a man my dear; any man," and the woman did so accompanied by many wolf whistles as several guys helped her down the steps into the thronging crowd. In less than a minute she had found a suitable person and was dragging him onto the stage with much jeering from the guys friends who moved forward in anticipation.

"What's ya name kiddo?" mocked John as the man nervously stepped up to the centre stage, waving to his friends.

"Freddy…"

"A round of applause please for 'flaming Freddy," and with that John and Wanda shared a mischievous glance before John turned Freddy to face Wanda, "Scarlet Witch, please blow 'flaming Freddy' here a good luck kiss, if ya would." And with a roll of her eyes, Wanda bent over, placing two fingertips to her scarlet lips before, with a wink of her eyes she blew a kiss to Freddy…whose hair spontaneously combusted.

For all those who don't know what that means…for no reason…it suddenly caught on fire. Gasping in shock surprise, John stepped back from Freddy and gave Wanda a look as the boy nervously looked around; frightened by the screams that had erupted, the Scarlet Witch however simply smiled innocently; perfectly calm. "Scarlet; look what you've done now. Apologise young lady." And with that, Pyro pointed a finger at her and the fire on top of Freddy's head manipulated the exact movement of his hand – forming a hand and finger of its own, pointing the fire finger directly at Wanda.

"Sorry flaming Freddy," Wanda sighed before being pointed off stage by John – the finger showing her where the exit to the stage was.

However, getting really into his act now John shrugged to the audience who all cheered and laughed as the fire manipulated a pair of shoulders and performed the movement in exact synchronisation with John. Raising one hand as though pondering something, John sighed. "What am oy gonna do with that girl eh?" and the hand copied the movement before suddenly becoming a life-size copy of John, jumping off of the top of 'flaming Freddy's' head to join John, walking across the stage with the man. "Give it up for flaming Freddy, ladies and gentlemen," clapped John to the man who, completely shocked, eventually made his way off of the stage whilst the replica of John clapped him too.

Catching sight of his life-size impersonation, John suddenly pretended to be shocked and turned to face his own fire reflection, which – as though a mirror – faced John, turning to the audience in surprise with the man, crouching down to get a closer look. Standing up tall was to see what the fire-John would do and Pyro stroked his chin thoughtfully before jumping suddenly to the left to see if his replica would. The fire did so at exactly the same time as John to tremendous screaming and cheering and the man frowned before turning to the audience with his fire replica. "Oy didn't know oy was that handsome…what d'ya think ladies?" and he posed for the girls who all screamed as loudly as possible, Rogue, Lexa and Kitty – who had by now taken her outfit off – screaming louder than anybody else. However, much to John's amusement, Remy let out a very loud wolf whistle and John posed for the man, pouting until suddenly his fire image disappeared into a cloud of smoke. "Aw! Now look what you've done mate!"

The crowd laughed and John frowned almost thoughtfully before extending a hand to Rogue; the woman acting her part with delicacy by looking around at the crowd in shock and confusion as she was led onto the stage to much cheering. As though on cue, Wanda walked back on stage, pouting piteously whilst carrying a huge red handkerchief – which was actually Lance's cape from the earlier act. 'Shakedown' looked at the others and frowned, "they never mentioned this part."

"Yeh but they do, like, totally _love_ to surprise!" Kitty giggled, watching in anticipation with the rest of the crowd whilst John turned around to Wanda.

"Scarlet Witch; there you are…hmmm…" pausing, Pyro took the red cape and looked at it closely, "this will do perfectly…thank you Scarlet m'dear." Glad to be useful, Wanda put on a beaming smile before being handed back the cape, which she swung around majestically to show the audience its authenticity. "If ya please, Scarlet!" and with this Wanda swung the cape around once more before swinging it around Rogue, hiding the girl completely from the audience's view. "You've seen tricks number four and five," he turned to the audience, "now give it up for our final trick for tonight; TRICK NUMBER SIX!" the crowd cheered, whistling and clapping their hands as a build up.

Wiggling his fingers, John did a few small tricks as he manipulated the fire to land on his fingertips before creating another circular wall around the hidden Rogue. When the clapping finally hit its peak, John raised his arms high into the air and the fire vanished as Wanda simultaneously pulled the cape away from Rogue.

Gasps and screams erupted from the gigantic crowd and Rogue looked at herself before practically fainting, however, to a lot of surprised cheers and applauds, John caught the girl effortlessly before helping her gain her footing. Shaking his hand and blowing on them behind Rogue, Pyro smiled innocently as Rogue turned around.

She was covered in flames – unknown to everybody but the knowledgeable few however, beneath the flickering flames, Rogue's entire body was covered in magma thanks to a little borrowed power from Magma. Leaving the woman to wonder around stage for a while, John then brought her back to the front where Rogue bowed – enclosed in flames. He then raised both hands and brought them down in a single swishing motion and – as soon as she turned off her magma ability – the flames disappeared.

With screaming and cheering, Pyro and his assistant the Scarlet Witch both bowed before, swinging Wanda up so that he held her in his arms in a typical wedding lift, John spoke over the volumes. "Ah what the heck; trick number seven ladies and gentlemen; I have been Pyro and this was my wonderful assistant the Scarlet Witch!" Screams and cheers went up as the two bowed, "glad you enjoyed the show and I hope you enjoy the rest of the evening! GOOD NIGHT!" and both him and Wanda disappeared in a circle of flames, reappearing moments later backstage where Kitty let go of their arms before jumping on them both.

_**Five minutes later**_

Wanda and John left the backdoor of the stage to meet up with the rest of the Xmen – Scott, Jean, Kurt, Amanda, Kitty, Lance, Pietro, Lexa, Lorna, Piotr, Warren and Betsy – who had arrived later on in the show – and Remy and Rogue. The latter of which jumped on Wanda with much giggling, "doncha jus' love Amara Aquilla!"

"That was amazing John!" Jean hugged the man, as did everyone else before they began to wander around the Fair until Betsy suddenly gasped.

"Ooh! Piotr, I have just found the perfect competition for you, luv," with that the girl got hold of the big guy's arm and dragged him over to a large sign that was just perfect. 'Strong Man', the sign read and Betsy jumped up and down in excitement, "go on luv! There's an actual strong man involved and a cash prize for the winner if they manage to beat the strong man."

Gazing at the small print, Lorna gasped in shock before looking to Piotr, "well they obviously are very confident in this strong man; a _**$500,000**_ reward!" she exclaimed, and everybody crowded around for a closer look.

"Surely that's one '0' too many!" asked Rogue inquisitively but when Betsy asked with a man standing outside the arena, it was certified that this was the exact amount. "Aw! Whah can't gals trah! Ah'd kick all o' their asses," pouted the woman, eyeing up all of the men in the arena who were being sorted as to whether they were contenders. "Ah could pick that up easily!" Rogue cooed to Remy with a pathetic pout whilst the man just sighed.

"Says men only _Cherie_; y' can'."

Muttering to herself, Rogue instead decided to take pleasure as one guy attempted and failed to lift the weights that you had to lift to qualify in the competition. "Y'all bettah win this Piotr." Was all she would say, apart from to laugh openly at another guy who failed.

"I noot sure…"

"Five-hundred _thousand_," Lorna tempted, "think of what we could buy…it wouldn't just be for us though! You could send the money out to Russia; to your family." And upon this fantastic idea, Piotr jumped to action and as a man with a microphone looked around for any extra people, he began to step forward.

Booming out over the crowds, the man bristled his walrus moustache before shrugging, "it looks like we have no more competitors ladies and gentlemen so let's get on with the show!" But he soon paused as the new group started yelling for him to wait and watched as a large man – towering even above the strong man himself with twice the muscles – stepped forward. Hesitantly he looked upon Piotr before speaking into the microphone, "looks like we have one more competitor ladies and gents; what's your name son? Speak up," he encouraged as Piotr mumbled something.

"Piotr…"

"Peter," misinterpreted the moustached man, much to John's annoyance as the pyromaniac attempted to get to the microphone, held back with one hand by Rogue. "Well, try your luck." And with little to no effort, Piotr lifted the weights high above his head with one hand, confusedly looking around as though to ask if they were being serious about the weight whilst the Xmen group cheered uproariously. Shocked, the man with the microphone almost gasped, "welcome to the competition…"

Jealous as the men lined up, Rogue scowled, cat-calling to the weaker competitors, noticing another person who was calling obscene things form nearby. Turning to her left, Rogue caught sight of the group of New Mutants who gestured to the rest of their empty front row, which the Xmen joined them on. "Evening," Tabby smirked at Rogue, nodding to the line of competitors as to the absence of her boyfriend and Roberto who were preparing themselves. "Heard you jeering from a mile away; peeved off at not having the chance to compete?"

"Ya…how can ya tell," both women laughed and Rogue greeted Danny and the other New Mutants before they turned to watch as the games commenced.

_**Half and hour later**_

Within the first four rounds, ten out of the twenty men had been eliminated, including Bobby who couldn't quite cheat with his powers as Roberto was doing due to the fact that he was wearing a sleeveless top. However, underneath the sleeves of his jumper Roberto had his powers on, manipulating the sun's energy that he'd stored away to give him extra strength. But the gang of mutants could tell that the boy was slacking as he failed his first and second attempts to lift some more weights; his power was failing and without any more sun around, Roberto dejectedly was kicked out of the competition.

"Did well huh?"

"You bloody cheat," giggled Danny, as Bobby high fived him out of respect, "it was impressive though." Meanwhile they all turned around as the strong man lifted his weights, concentrating hard; his face red as he lifted them high. Whereas he took twenty seconds to lift the weights, Piotr had his weights up, down and was having a rest in that same amount of time – it only looked as though he were lifting Kitty up for the effort he was making.

Cheering as loudly as they could, the gang gave Piotr thumbs up as he moved onto stage five.

_**Another half an hour later**_

Finally it was stage ten, and surprisingly (not) only Piotr and the professional, world champion strong man were left. The task – start 50 metres down a tarmac track and carry a small car 15 metres further down the track before depositing it out of the way, then roll a barrel about the size of Piotr himself along the final 15 metre stretch of track. Next the two had to go back the other way to where they started. Just up from there they had to get a miniature brick building out of their way – either lift, drag or break down – and finally, after clearing the track of all obstacles, pull or – if you could – carry a rather large tractor along the 45metre track right to the end.

Allowed to go and see him before he performed this final stage, Lorna gave Piotr a drink and gave his shoulders a relaxing miniature massage whilst praising Colossus for his excellent work. "It doesn't matter what you do now Piotr; you've done fantastically well, big boy and I'm so proud! Just have fun and do what you do best; we're right behind you!" And pointing to the gang of mutants, Lorna directed Piotr to a huge banner reading his name as they all cheered and whooped, having got a crowd of support behind to back them up from random other people. Sitting down amongst the cheering people, Lorna blew her boyfriend a kiss whilst he attempted to shake hands with the strong man.

Suspicious, the man eventually realised Piotr's courtesy when the larger man smiled gracefully and shook it, "good luck mate."

"You too; have good time."

"Mmm…" narrowing his eyes competitively when Piotr turned away, the strong man focussed, rubbing his hands together in preparation until finally a whistle was blown. He ran the distance to get to his small car and with much effort, lifted the car onto his back before starting down the track – huffing and puffing. Whilst beside him but a bit further back, Piotr walked to his car, examined it and chose the best place in which to hold it before – putting it on its side – the huge man bent down and picked the car up using one hand; holding it under his arm. Reaching the destination of the barrel before Piotr, the strong man rubbed both hands together and crouched down low, getting his hand underneath the edge to slowly roll it over, repeating this method constantly.

Unlike this, Piotr delicately put his car down off the track and turned it upright, before examining the barrel. At eye level with the top of it, the large man simply frowned, the tumultuous cheering drowning out the sounds of clanking as he used his mutant abilities to make both hands metallic. Stretching out both hands with a curious frown, Piotr simply pushed the barrel slightly and it did a full roll so with that the man gave the barrel a huge shove. Colossus watched satisfactorily whilst the gigantic barrel rolled on course past the strong man, right to the end of the track, stopping at the barriers a bit further off the track.

Clapping his hands together, Piotr began to walk calmly up the track, waving to his group of fans on the sideline before concentrating on the building in hand…and in a few moments it was exactly that. Pushing the top of the building with the right amount of force directed in the right place, Piotr managed to tilt it so that when he bent down, the man could get both hands underneath the tiny building. Lifting it awkwardly, he waddled his way carefully and slowly to the edge of the track to a designated area and placed one edge of the building on the grass before slowly lowering down the other end until Piotr could finally drop it fully onto the grass.

Obstacle three was out of Piotr Rasputin's way and had just become the strong man's task who was deciding to break it into small bits. But Piotr had no time to watch this and calmly walked to the tractor at the other end and examined it all over. Upon doing this, the giant noticed a chain hanging off of one end and attempted to pull the tractor by this, but the chain simply pulled off in Piotr's hand. Frowning, Piotr chucked the useless chain in the tractor amongst much laughter from the crowds and examined the front end for a good enough grip hold. By now the strong man had hurriedly rushed onto the tractor and was gradually pulling it along, but within moments Piotr had caught up having decided upon a good enough holding place. Lifting the tractor clearly off the ground as though he were picking up a table by one end, Piotr began to walk in a more dignified manner than the strong man, although it was still hilariously amusing to watch.

Colossus was three quarters of the way down the track by the time the strong man was even a quarter and, looking back, Piotr suddenly dropped his tractor noticing something nobody had spotted. Sprinting back towards his opponent, Piotr ignored the yells of various people and put his hand up at the strong man, yelling "stop!" as loudly as he could.

Taking this to be cheating the strong man would have swore rather violently but he was too wrapped up in his tractor…the fatal error that only Piotr had noticed. Reaching his opponent, Piotr Rasputin immediately bent down and – being the gentleman he was – hurriedly threw the rest of the brick building away so that the strong man, as he would of otherwise, didn't fall over because of the rubble.

With this, Piotr smiled respectfully to the man who looked at him gratefully before the two remembered why they were there. But there was no point in the strong man even trying.

By the time Piotr had resumed walking, the smaller guy was not even halfway and within a minute Piotr carefully put his tractor down in the located spot, turning around to lift his arms in victory. The cheering was horrendous, and Lorna ran to her boyfriend, jumping on him whilst kissing the man fruitfully as everybody crowded around him.

"Noyce one mate!"

"Go Piotr! Go Piotr! Go! Go! Go Piotr!" chanted Betsy, Tabby, Danielle, Amanda, Kitty and even Wanda, whilst Rogue – jealous though she was – congratulated Piotr again and again. Clapping the strong man on the back was out of good sportsmanship and they shook hands, the professional gallant as he congratulated Piotr, handing the man the check himself.

_**Ten minutes later**_

"What a night!" Kurt sighed, high fiving Warren whilst everybody admired the large and handsome check, signed to Piotr Rasputin.

"Home time, huh?" agreed Lexa, kissing her husband on the cheek before hugging Piotr in congratulations.

Meanwhile, a little distance away for safety, Rogue lifted the small car above her head as though it was nothing, spinning it with her single hand to impress Remy. The Cajun and John sat on the ground to watch as Rogue threw the car in the air and caught it with her other hand. Bowing whilst still holding the car in the air when Remy and John cheered, Rogue began to spin it again thoughtfully, "see, now if ah'd been in that competition, ah'd have won!"

"Dat's only cuz Piotr would've gone t' help de guy _et_ y' would've carried on goin'," giving Rogue an unimpressed look as she nodded, admitting to this almost as though she didn't see what was wrong with it, Remy turned to John with a mock sigh. "Remy's girlfriend eh? Doncha love 'er?"

"Nope mate, got moy own," and as Wanda joined the two sitting in the snow whilst watching Rogue spinning a car above her head like she was a circus act, John pulled his Gothic fiancée into his lap.

Dropping the car with out a care for the damage it might cause, Rogue sighed and ignored stunned men walking past who stared at the petit women in shock, "ah don' care; ah still would'a won," she brought the conversation back to the competition and Wanda just chortled. Standing up was to link arms with her best friend as the two couples headed back to the main group.

"Sure you would have."

"Ah would'a won! Y'all know it's true!"

Smiling, Piotr nudged Rogue who – unlike anybody else who would have fallen over – simply nudged the man back, "shame it isn't for women, no?" And with that the man laughed before starting to run as Rogue and Wanda turned to their respective other halves to get their toys, chasing after Piotr with their inflatable hammer and baseball bat.

**End of Chapter**

Quite a long chapter to make up for the last one! Hope you liked! It was more a fun chapter than anything else so I hope it's getting you in the festive mood! .x.Thriller.x.


	5. Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve! Yay! Let's see what the Xmen are getting up to today!

Key:

"…" Speech

'…' Thoughts

(…) Extra information

**Songs are in bold **

Written letters or notes are underlined

_"Telepathic thoughts and the other line of the phone is in Italics and speech marks_"

Chapter 5

VvV Christmas Eve VvV

_**24**__**th**__** December, Xmansion, morning; 9:00am**_

"BREAKFAST!" the yell resounded throughout the mansion, bringing about many mixed reactions.

Snuggled deep under her covers, Danielle Moonstar sighed deeply, ignoring the ringing in her ears form the yell that had resounded outside her door not to mention the thumping bangs as Logan came back down the corridor to make sure everybody was waking up. Unlike her roommate, Tabby took the hint and when Danny had piled her covers over herself, the bubbly blonde made her move and crept over to her prey. With a triumphant squeal and giggle, Tabitha jumped on Danny – pulling back her covers to smother the girl with morning kisses from Danielle's new, gigantic, cuddly, orange gorilla; Moonstar.

"TABBY!" she squealed before pouncing on the girl as the two of them engaged themselves in a morning wrestling match.

On the other side of the mansion down the 'couple's corridor', John was woken up as Wanda ran her leg seductively up John's bare one and the two…woke each other up. However, in the room next door, as Rogue tried to get up to have an early morning training session, Remy simply hauled the girl to himself and snuggled his chin into the fluffy folds of her hair.

Scott and Jean both woke up side to side, cuddling each other for five minutes as they chatted about plans for the day before getting up – Scott going to the ensuite as Jean piled some clothes up and headed down the corridor to the other couples bathroom. Meeting her on the way out, Ororo smiled, "morning Jean. Good nights sleep?"

"It was alright, I think we need a new mattress though…we have had the same one for several years now and it's getting shabby," ruffling her hair whilst stifling a yawn, Jean waved goodbye as Ororo excused herself and stepped into the bathroom. The redhead sent Rogue an apologetic face as the woman watched Jean stepping into the lady's bathroom.

Huffing her way back to her room was all the tired Rogue could be bothered to do but as she went a smirk slowly crept up on her face and when Remy turned around as his bedroom door opened, he simply saw her grinning maliciously. "Bathroom taken?"

"Ya…looks lahke y'all have to wait." And with that Rogue ran towards the ensuite door, snapping it in her husband's face whilst Remy slammed on it.

"Aw, common C_here_!" and with a quick scan of the room for a hair clip, Remy not only found that but picked up something else his sharp eyes spotted. Before Rogue knew what was happening, something was slipped around her neck and a pair of hands were sliding around her bare waist. The power-inhibiting collar fitted snugly on and the two were raring to go…

_**Downstairs in the Kitchen**_

Several New Mutants slowly began to wonder into the room – deciding to wait until after breakfast to use the bathrooms – draped in dressing gowns with fluffy slippers scuffing tiredly over the floor. They all waved good morning to Logan who sat quietly reading a newspaper and several managed to stifle yawns so they could greet Charles and Hank who had arrived earlier that morning.

Placing a pile of pancakes into the middle of the table was Ororo's greeting and before long she had appeared again with several breakfast cereals that Hank passed her from the cupboard, greeting Kitty and Lance who walked into the room, both smiling cheerfully. "Lexa just phoned to tell me that Maddie slept the whole night through!" explained Kitty for her cheerfulness before taking a seat Lance had offered.

"Pietro said they'll be coming over this afternoon with the kids but have decided that they're gonna have a quiet family Christmas this year with Mag…Eric." Correcting himself quickly enough, Lance smiled before accepting some pancakes that Bobby passed him. "How was he by the way?"

Sipping his cup of tea thoughtfully, Charles smiled and replied; "Magnus was very good actually…very cheerful and in a positive mood. The long break he's had away from politics and arguing has definitely given him a better view on life and has improved his view on his own life immensely. He did mention that his son has asked him to stay and I'm glad he accepted the offer – it'll be nice to get to know his grandchildren," smiling, Charles finished his tea and began to head to the kitchen door. "Logan."

"Mmm…" not even looking up from his newspaper was unusual for the man but when Charles repeated himself, the mutant folded it up and jumped up form his chair.

"You said you had something to show me?"

"Yup." And with that the two men left the room whilst Hank and Ororo greeted more mutants as people began to fill the room whilst the original people in the room left to use the showers.

VvVvVvV

"Anything good on?" finally glad to have the Rec. room to themselves now that the New Mutants had gone outside, the older mutants all lounged around, taking up as much space as possible.

Curling up in front of the fire, Kitty skimmed through the TV magazine, folding over pages of interesting articles before examining the timetable for today, "um…no not really actually. Can't find anything interesting. Why don't you pick a movie?" suggested the young girl when groans met this comment and immediately Rogue and Betsy jumped up to the cupboard.

"Don' wanna stain yahreself Betsy, now do ya?"

"Ha, ha…very funny," sarcastically replied the model and, taking the hint, went and sat down between Remy and Warren – taking Rogue's space to be spiteful. When the movie was picked and Rogue had slot it into the machine however, she simply slid behind the sofa and lifted it up with one hand, tilting the contents – i.e. Remy, Warren and Betsy – onto the floor before jumping onto it, lounging over the entire thing. Taking the hint, Remy sat in front of it and began to play solitaire with a pack of cards whilst Betsy and Warren curled up together next to the Christmas tree; the former slapping Warren's hand away from a present labelled to him.

Giggling at her boyfriend's pout, Betsy gave him a look, "not yet. You have to wait till tomorrow."

"It doesn't feel much like Christmas…" sighed Amanda as she and Kurt walked into the room, the girl attempting to balance her drink on top of her lump for amusement.

"Totally!" exclaimed Kitty whilst finishing the article on 'Chrimbo crackers' – 'does Christmas start to early?' she threw it to Jean as the girl beckoned for it and turned to face the TV, leaning against Lance who poked at the fire before watching the movie Rogue had put on. "It's cuz we're all growing up I guess…although I guess some people, like _never_ grow up," frowning she turned to Rogue who was already divulged in the movie she had put on. A must-have Christmas pick – _the Grinch_.

Enraptured, Rogue didn't even bother pulling a face in response and moved over as Wanda joined the girl on the sofa – both women finding the movie similarly entertaining. John plonked himself beside Remy, his attention flickering from the movie to Remy's card game and to his own lighter. Flickering it repeatedly on and off got so annoying that Wanda eventually simply plucked the 'toy' from her fiancé's hands and put it down her bra.

"Ah well, at least it isn't the _Gremlins_ again…" and with that the girl frowned before remembering something. Pulling Kurt up from his position on the sofa, the youngest woman apologised to the room – including Kurt's confused wife (wed in the early spring) – and dragged Kurt from it. "Forgot something! We're just going to town; be back later!"

Sharing looks, everyone in the room watched this strange behaviour and both Lance and Amanda shrugged about their other halves, looking up when Kurt's face appeared around the door – freshly changed by him image inducer. "Be back in a little while _Meine Liebe_ (my love), you're staying ze evening aren't you?" and when Amanda nodded, Kurt disappeared again and everybody looked around as the front door slammed.

"O…k…" was the mixed response.

"Can we focus ohn tha movie people!" Rogue's voice yelled over the mumbling and soon enough everybody had tuned in on the Grinch…whose facial expression was very similar to a certain mutant's.

_**Outside**_

Frowning as the rest of the New Mutants laughed and threw snowballs at each other, Amara shivered in her overcoat and gloves before – rubbing her hands together – she took both gloves off and fired up. Momentarily the gift of her magma skin flickered into life before the liquid heat suddenly stopped flowing and Magma was forced to take her powers underneath her skin, where they would stay heated. Sighing was all the girl could do as she looked off into the distance that was covered in snow as far as the eye could see.

A figure however blocked her view and sat down, smiling disdainfully when Amara turned away to look in the other direction…more snow covering the landscape. Roberto simply placed his gloved hand upon his girlfriend's bare one before slipping his own gloves over Amara's freezing skin. "Horrible weather huh?" But Amara wouldn't reply and just sighed, shivering slightly, "I could get Tabby to blast some snow away," joked Roberto but his girlfriend just turned to him.

"Na…it's fine. It never snowed in Nova Roma…that's all."

"Oh…" unsure of what to say Roberto shrugged, refusing the offer as everybody called for him to play, and instead asked; "did you have Christmas?"

"You can go and play with them if you like."

Frowning, Roberto looked at Jubilee who shook her head when he moved as though to stand and the boy changed his mind, "I'd rather stay here…so did you?"

Amara turned and faced him, "have Christmas?" upon her boyfriend's nod, the girl simply replied, "no."

"Oh…"

"We used to celebrate the summer though; the longest day of the year was spent feasting and playing until the late hours of the evening and then we'd sing and dance around warm fires…I miss the warmth." Sighed the young girl, but managed to play a smile, "but I don't mind it. I'd rather stay here in the colder weather than go back. Besides; I have my own fire," linking into Roberto's arm was to signify who her flame was and the boy smiled affectionately.

"Better get used to the cold then," and with that he dragged Amara up, ignoring her playful struggles to finally haul her up in a fireman's lift before eventually dropping his girlfriend in a pile of snow.

Shrieking, Amara pulled herself out and got a large lump of the white, soft substance around and moulded it into a ball before proceeding to throw it at Roberto's face. Perfectly on target the ball was and would have hit Roberto directly on if it weren't for his quick reflexes.

Instead Jamie got a mouthful of snow at which Danny picked up her own ball of snow and hit Amara in the chest with it.

A game of intense play fighting followed – involving a lot of shrieking, cursing and of course, a _hell_ of a lot of snow. Watching from a large window above them, Logan, Hank, Ororo and Charles all laughed uproariously as at least a dozen Jamies took down the rest of the group.

"Kids." Charles laughed, shaking his head in pure amusement, "I'm assuming they behaved themselves whilst we were gone?"

Beginning to think of a suitable answer, Ororo opened her mouth only for Logan to beat her to it, "they were fine. Didn't cause any trouble and behaved themselves. Besides, even if they hadn't I'd have been there to punish them."

"Make them see the error of their ways Logan; not punish," but besides his correction, a look passed between them men and Charles smiled. "But that's good to know. Thank you…lets just hope we can have a reasonable Christmas eh? Without too much trouble…"

"You know about John and Wanda's present then?"

"How could I not…very amusing I'm sure. Everybody will love the gift immensely," and the two shared another look whilst Ororo and Hank looked worried at the sound of the gift.

**End of Chapter**

Ok, really short crappy chapter I know…but I didn't know what else to put and I've tired myself out on the rest of the story so I hope you like it anyway – I think I'm gonna go have a big sleep now! Lol! Wake up nice and early tomorrow! .x.Thriller.x.


	6. Christmas Day

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you got all the presents you wanted and had a lovely, festive time! Ooh! And a happy new year too!

* * *

Key:

"…" Speech

'…' Thoughts

(…) Extra information

**Songs are in bold **

Written letters or notes are underlined

_"Telepathic thoughts and the other line of the phone is in Italics and speech marks_"

* * *

Chapter 6

VvV Christmas Day VvV

_**25**__**th**__** December, Xmansion, morning; 6:00am**_

"_Hey…_" whispered a female's voice in the boy's ears, and Bobby turned over in his bed away from the noise, attempting to get more sleep, but this only infuriated the girl more. Shaking the boy's shoulder as she tried to wake him, Tabby whispered a bit louder, hushed by everybody else in the room; "_Bobby_!"

"Go 'way…" muttered the boy and pushed Tabitha off of his bed, but suddenly as something dawned on him, Bobby sat up, before pulling his covers up – aware that the rest of the New Mutants were in his and Roberto's dorm. Embarrassingly…Bobby liked to sleep in his boxers…and _only_ his boxers, so when several girls giggled at the sight of his bare – but manly – chest, the boy scowled and hid it. "_Fuck off!_" he whispered, pulling on a shirt that was lying near his bed. "_What d'ya want_?"

And it was then that the boy spotted the stocking everybody was carrying and spotted his own at the end of the bed.

_**Couple's corridor**_

They may have been older, but that didn't make Christmas any less exciting for the rest of the X-kids.

Crowded into Kurt and Amanda's room –the biggest because it was a guest room due to Amanda sleeping over and Kurt's request to share a room – was Kurt and Amanda themselves, Jean, Scott, Lance, Kitty, Betsy, Warren, Rogue, Remy, John, Wanda, Piotr and Lorna. The only two missing were Lexa and Pietro and even though it felt slightly strange without their bubbly fighting, everybody had already agreed that it was nice that the two of them were having a family Christmas.

Unable to contain themselves, the group of mutants all praised soundproof walling as they shouted and exclaimed about their stocking presents, which all seemed to be quite amusing this year. It had been more of a secret Santa with stockings – everybody picked a name of whose stocking they'd fill and it looked like they'd all done it in the most amusing manner possible.

Rogue had a vast collection of makeup that she'd been in drastic need of, whilst Remy got several million packs of cards – all ranging in designs and sizes. As though he asked for one every Christmas, Warren had received a wing-caring set of items – unluckily the buyer had left on labels (Bobby thought it would be amusing) and Warren found out the items in his stocking were to be used on parrots…but he'd use them anyway. Lorna got a shed load of baby items – ranging from a 'gag 'em' dummy, to a book of the world's weirdest baby names, whereas Wanda got just what she needed – a kit on 'home-made witchcraft'.

One of the other more amusing gifts was an item in Scott's stocking and consisted of a cleaning set for goggles – everybody looked at Remy who couldn't have made it more obvious with his constant Christmas nicknaming involving 'Goggle boy' and 'Scott' in every sentence. However the best stocking by far was for John who turned his upside down to find the contents of a child's stocking.

Scoffing the sweeties that fell out whilst gleefully unwrapping the other items, John discovered a toy car and dinosaur, a miniature set of Lego in which he found instructions to make his own fireplace and several other items. But best of all were the two last presents; both were lighters and the first one was a beautifully engraved lighter with all the first names of every member of the institute – including children and leaving room for more. The second one made every single persons in the room cheer as John attempted to light the flame up.

A safety-first, impossible to open, _fire resistant_ lighter.

Giggling, Wanda snatched the item off of John and eyed it, before, with a single wink of her eye and a blue aura…the whole thing was set on fire. The volumes of shouting and yelling and manic, gleeful cackling almost drowned out Wanda's comment; "fire resistant my ass!"

VvVvVvV

_**Rec. Room**_

Examining the crowded room, Charles placed his queen on the board and immediately regretted his momentary lack of concentration as Hank swiped it off of the board with a pawn.

"It seems as though the mansion gets more full every year," and the man himself winced as Charles moved up the board.

"Checkmate. But yes, Hank, I do see what you mean. But it's lovely; it's such a home to most of them and what more of a family could you need? I have to admit, I didn't expect Pietro and Lexa to stay away for long," and the man turned to the fighting couple, creating much amusement for their children, one of which was currently wrapped in Betsy's arms whilst she played with Tory gleefully. "And it's wonderful to have you here of course, Magnus," and with that Charles turned to his old friend who sat comfortably, eyeing the crowded room with old yet happy eyes.

"A pleasure."

Coming in from a side door, Scott balanced his daughter on one knee, creating a more comfortable cradle in his arms for her whilst beckoning to Jean. The woman passed her glass to Rogue who took it gleefully, until Jean consoled her that it was non-alcoholic.

She would have passed it over to John, but Wanda intervened at the hyper state he was in.

"I don't think he needs anything else, alcoholic or not." But with her back turned, Wanda didn't notice as Bobby got in there with a large bag of Haribo and dragged John to one side where the New Mutants were busy playing hangman, into which John settled delightfully. "What will I do with that boy?"

"Marry him?" suggested Kitty, giggling at the roll of the eyes she received.

_**Later on after finishing Dinner**_

The table was full of empty plates with minor titbits here and there still being nibbled whilst the group at the table conversed happily; well, when you say table, it actually consisted of several large tables shoved together with one huge cloth over the top. Glasses filled with champagne, the Xmen chattered away, happily rubbing full stomachs and thanking Scott and Jean mainly for the delightful meal.

It was when two certain people shared a look that somebody stood, and Kurt Wagner looked to his best friend Kitty who clapped both hands excitedly, "ooh! Look at Kurt," shoving her friends as the man waited with a glass of champagne in his hands, Kitty got everybody's attention focussed.

"Firstly…vell, vat can I say?"

"GERMAN!" shouted John from one end and was muffled by Wanda, who sat in hysterics with Rogue.

"Vell," chuckled Kurt, "apart from zat. But, no, I vould like to first thank Scott for zis vonderful meal and-"

many cheers went up around the table until a voice rang out, "I helped!"

"And Bobby-" attempting to continue was futile as the rest of the New Mutants, who had all helped mostly, cat called, "and everyone else who helped…"

"Ah ate it," Rogue's voice cheered, snickering as she earned a nudge from Wanda.

"Thank you to everyone for vatever contribution zey made, but zis is not simply a toast for zat," and both he and Kitty shared a look before Kurt looked to Amanda. "As most of you know due to her complaining, I have not, as yet, given my beautiful Amanda, her due present. But," calmed Kurt, hushing the boos coming from a certain end of the table – i.e. Rogue, Remy, Wanda and John – "but, I give it to her now." And with that the man produced a small pamphlet from his pocket, "I've been saving up my pocket money for quite a while," he joked and Amanda gasped as she looked at the house brochure. "I have bought a house," explained the man to all those who weren't aware, "and vith much help from Kitty, I zink zat it is so perfect, Amanda and me shall be moving in sometime in the spring…"

She could only nod, attempting to stop the tears falling from her eyes at the happiness, "you trying to get rid of me already?" giggled the girl to Kitty.

"Well, I have like, been wanting that room for totally ages now!" the girl laughed before breaking down into hysterical sobs herself.

"What funeral am ah at?" called Rogue, and people gradually began to disperse from the table, examining the copies of the brochure that Kitty got before meandering back into the living room.

Clasping her stomach, Wanda stumbled to her feet, "ugh…I think I ate too much…I'm gonna go hog a sofa."

"Ah'll sit on ya!" warned Rogue with a giggle and the two girls playfought before, winning, Wanda took the sofa she deserved and warned Rogue off when the girl went to sit on her.

"Wouldn't if I were you, knowing your weight you'd probably kill this little darling," and with the Wanda rubbed her belly in a manner that reminded Rogue so much of Kitty with her own pregnancy.

"Yahre not!"

"Not yet…but if it gets me out of buying Johnny a present by saying that I'll have another, suits me."

The two girls laughed but when Rogue looked serious, Wanda reassured her that it was all planned and definitely wanted. "Good way to get out of it…although, I think personally I'd rather spend the money in the short term rather than let it build up in the long term," and with that her arms automatically hugged Remy from behind.

"How many _bebes_ is dis Mansion gon' have befo' it's finished?"

"Aw shut up Cajun, y'all were moaning this mornin' about yahre own familah: this bloke has ambitions," and Rogue rolled her eyes gaining a giggle from Kitty who patted her own belly, making puppy eyes at Wanda so she budged up.

"Yup, not to like, mention Amara and Roberto."

"No!"

"Wanda isn't the only one planning," confirmed Jean, and all of the older Xmen gave the couple a look as Roberto absentmindedly stroked a belly that was soon going to have a telltale bump.

It looked like this was going to be one hell of a year for the X-babies…and just think what next Christmas will bring.

With that thought in everyone's mind, Charles Xavier raised his hands to silence the group who all turned as once, raising their voices into yells to wish each other a

"**MERRY CHRISTMAS!"**

**The End**

I know it was short, but I really hoped you liked this chapter and I hope you enjoyed the story! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! Lots of Chrimbo lurve .x.thriller.x.


End file.
